When did South Africa become a developed country

The earliest indigenous inhabitants of South Africa were the San, the Khoi and the Bantu, who later migrated southward.After the 17th century, the Dutch and the British invaded South Africa.At the beginning of the 20th century, South Africa became a British self-governing territory.On May 31, 1961, South Africa withdrew from the British Commonwealth and established the State of South Africa***. Due to the white authorities in South Africa to promote racial discrimination and apartheid policies in the country, the people of South Africa, under the leadership of the African National Congress, headed by Mandela, in order to overthrow the apartheid system, carried out a heroic struggle, and ultimately won the victory.In April 1994, South Africa held the first general election by a variety of races to participate in the Mandela was elected to be the first black president of South Africa.

South Africa is rich in mineral resources and is one of the world's top five mineral countries. Gold, platinum group metals, manganese, vanadium, chromium, titanium and aluminosilicate reserves ranked first in the world, vermiculite, zirconium ranked second in the world, fluorite, phosphate ranked third in the world, antimony, uranium ranked fourth in the world, coal, diamonds, lead ranked fifth in the world. South Africa is the world's largest gold producer and exporter, gold exports accounted for one-third of all foreign exports, so it is also known as "the country of gold".

South Africa belongs to the middle-income developing countries, GDP accounted for about 20% of Africa's GDP. Mining, manufacturing, agriculture and services are the four pillars of the South African economy, deep mining technology in the world in a leading position. South Africa's manufacturing sector is complete and technologically advanced, mainly including iron and steel, metal products, chemicals, transportation equipment, food processing, textiles, clothing and so on. The output value of the manufacturing industry accounts for nearly one-fifth of the GDP. South Africa's power industry is more developed, with the world's largest dry-cooled power station, power generation accounted for two-thirds of the whole of Africa.

South Africa's rich and poor is extremely disparate, inter-racial income gap is obvious. 2 / 3 of the national income is concentrated in the hands of the rich accounted for 20% of the total population. The South African government launched the "reconstruction and development program" in 1994, plans to raise 37.5 billion rand in five years for the construction of housing, water, electricity and other facilities and the provision of basic health care services. 1997, the formulation of the "White Paper on Social Security", the poverty alleviation and the elderly, disabled and young. In 1997, the White Paper on Social Security was formulated, placing poverty alleviation and support for the elderly, the disabled and the young at the top of the social welfare agenda. AIDS is one of the serious social problems facing South Africa today.

According to the classification of the United Nations, South Africa is a middle-income developing country, rich in resources, developed in financial, legal, communication, energy and transportation industries, with complete hardware construction and stock exchange market ranked among the top 20 in the world. 2007, South Africa's GDP ranked 20th in the world.

The most developed regions in South Africa include Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, and Port Elizabeth. However, other regions outside of these areas have very limited development, creating a serious problem of disparity between the rich and the poor in South Africa. In addition, the income disparity between different races in South Africa has resulted in xenophobic tendencies among the blacks, serious crime and corruption problems, the continuous influx of refugees from neighboring countries, and a high rate of AIDS, which has also limited economic development. So although South Africa has the fourth highest GDP per capita in Africa, it is still considered a developing country.

From the above information, it is easy to see that at this rate of development, with the gradual realization of the "Reconstruction and Development Plan", South Africa will become a developed country in the near future.