South Africa, a regional superpower in sub-Saharan Africa

By Murat Ozgur Guvendik​​​​​​​

JOHANNESBURG (AA) – The Republic of South Africa, widely seen as one of Africa’s most stable countries and a regional superpower, stands among the leaders of the continent with its developments in a wide range of fields such as the economy, diplomacy, academia, culture, and art.

The country stretches over an area of 1.22 million square kilometers (471,000 square miles) and has a population of 60.3 million, according to official figures. Christians make up 80% of the population in South Africa, where more than a million Muslims also live.

Eleven languages are spoken in South Africa, and it has three capitals for the legislative, executive, and judicial branches in the cities of Cape Town, Pretoria, and Bloemfontein respectively.

South Africa is the only African country in G20, and has a GDP of $350 billion, ranking third after Nigeria and Egypt, while also possessing the largest stock market cap on the continent with $1.3 trillion. The country is also one of the members of the BRICS – a body made up of five major emerging economies – alongside Brazil, Russia, India and China.

It is also among the world’s largest producers of platinum, gold, titanium, chromium, magnesium, iron, coal, and diamonds.

Turkiye’s relations with South Africa have gained momentum in recent years following visits by Recep Tayyip Erdogan – first in 2005 as prime minister, and then in 2018 as president – with the bilateral trade volume currently standing around $1.5 billion, according to 2020 data.

The countries' diplomatic relations were established in the first half of the 1990s after the collapse of the apartheid regime.

* Writing by Ali Murat Alhas