Facts and Figures

South Africa is located at the southern tip of the African continent and is surrounded by ocean on three sides; the Atlantic Ocean on the west coast sweeping around south to meet the Indian Ocean on the east coast. 

In the north, South Africa shares its border with the countries of Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Swaziland. The mountain Kingdom of Lesotho is geographically enclosed within South Africa.

South Africa's economy is the largest in Africa, with strong mining and mineral processing sectors. The country's primary exports are fruit, wine, tobacco, sugarcane and corn. South Africa's wealth is distributed inequitably and there is a very high rate of unemployment.

South Africa held its first democratic elections in 1994, following many decades of internal and international pressure to end its apartheid policies. A new government was formed under the African National Congress and Nelson Mandela became the first President of the Republic of South Africa. 

The new government set about to dismantle the systems, policies and structures of apartheid and formulated a new constitution based on equality and freedom. Despite some social and economic progress in the first few years of the new government, efforts to improve the health and living standards of South Africa's population have been hindered by severe poverty, crime, unemployment and HIV/AIDS.

South Africa is divided into nine provinces. The Eastern Cape Province, where The Fred Hollows Foundation works, is the second largest province and is located along the south-east coast of the country.

The Eastern Cape is one of the poorest provinces in the country, with low levels of education and high unemployment. isiXhosa is the main language spoken in the province, followed by Afrikaans and English.

Sources: Human Development Report 2006, DFAT, UNDP

Population: 47.2 million
Urban population: 58.8%
Life expectancy: 49 years
Literacy rate:  82.4%
Percentage of population living on less than $2 a day: 34.1%
Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 births): 54
Number of doctors (per 100,000 people): 77

The state of health in South Africa has suffered some major set backs in recent years. Life expectancy at birth has dropped from 53.7 years in 1970-75 to just 49 years in 2006. Infant mortality rates have increased from 45 per 1,000 births in 1998 to 54 per 1,000 births in 2006.

The burden of the health crisis is borne largely by the poor and rural population. Factors contributing to the current health situation include poverty, poor sanitation and water supply, inadequate housing and inaccessibility of health services. 

The most common communicable diseases in South Africa are tuberculosis, malaria, measles, cholera and HIV/AIDS. Around 18.6% of the adult population (aged 15-49 years) is affected by HIV/AIDs and new infections are increasing at an alarming rate.

Since the first democratic elections in 1994, the South African Government has restructured the health system to improve equity and access to primary health care.

Previously, under apartheid, each public health facility was allocated to a particular racial group
with more services directed toward the white population. These services were also concentrated in the secondary and tertiary levels, such as hospital and specialist care.

The current public health system is district-based, with a greater emphasis on primary health care. There are now more than 3,500 health care clinics in South Africa which offer basic services free of charge, such as child immunisation, maternity care, counselling,  family planning, oral health, disease prevention, accident and emergency services and health promotion.

Eighty percent of South Africans rely on the public health system which is under-resourced and suffering from a severe shortage of medical personnel. Poor working conditions and low pay are driving many doctors and nurses to leave the public health system for private practice or
to work overseas. 

Although the private health sector is growing rapidly services are generally out of reach for the vast majority of the population who don't have medical insurance. Approximately 60% of spending on health care is in the private sector which is accessed by less than 20% of the population.

Sources: Human Development Report 2006, Population Reference Bureau, South African Equity Guage, UNDP

Number of blind people: 225,000 in South Africa
Main causes of blindness: Cataract (66%)
Number of people with cataract blindness: 160,000 in South Africa and 30,000 in the Eastern Cape Province 
Number of cataract operations performed annually: 850 per million population in South Africa and 5,000 annually in the Eastern Cape Province 
Number of ophthalmologists: 275 in South Africa

Source: Health Systems Trust