South Africa

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• Yvonne Chaka Chaka, renowned South African singer-songwriter and Goodwill Ambassador for the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, became the first African woman to receive the World Economic Forum's Crystal Award on 25 January 2012. The Award is given each year to successful artists who have used their art to 'improve the state of the world', according to the Forum.^[1]

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• The Department of International Relations and Cooperation on 30 January 2013 hosted the inaugural meeting of the South Africa-Philippines Bilateral Consultative Forum (BCF). The BCF serves as an instrument for structured bilateral consultations with the aim of advancing cooperation between the two countries.

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• The international jury of the 54th annual World Press Photo Contest has selected a picture by Jodi Bieber from South Africa as the World Press Photo of the Year 2010. On February 10, 2011 Bieber was honored for a portrait of an Afghan woman disfigured as punishment for abandoning her marriage. The photograph was first published on the front page of Time Magazine.^[2]

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• South African start-up company Paperight was named as one of the winners of the O’Reilly Tools of Change Startup Showcase, one of the world’s most prestigious publishing innovation competitions, on 13 February 2013 for its solution to large-scale book shortages within the developing world.^[3]

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• South Africa signed a visa waiver agreement on 22 February 2013 to facilitate better access for senior government officials and diplomats with the Benelux states (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), Italy, Panama and Spain.^[4]

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• A long-lost microcontinent hidden underneath the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius between Madagascar and India has been discovered, according to a study published by South African researchers along with their international colleagues on 24 February 2013 in the journal Nature Geoscience.^[5]

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• South Africa and the United Nations signed a five-year Strategic Cooperation Framework (UNSCF) on 26 February 2013 that will help government as it tries to meet its development agenda and implement its Programme of Action. It will provide the overall framework for the work of 17 UN organizations partnering with South Africa for the next five years.^[6]

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March 1

• University of Johannesburg became a member institute of NASA's Fermi-LAT gamma-ray space telescope mission on 1 March 2013. The university is now part of a team of more than 400 scientists and scholars from 90 universities and laboratories across 19 countries on six continents, working to unveil the mysteries of the high-energy universe.^[7]

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• Denmark has committed to help South Africa meet its future goals of a low carbon economy and reducing the growth of greenhouse gases through the deployment of low carbon technologies in the country. An agreement signed between the two governments on 4 March 2013 will see Denmark providing financial and technical support to South Africa to invest in wind based electricity generations and integrate renewable energy into the electricity supply.^[8]

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• Cape Town International Airport in South Africa was named the best airport in Africa by the Airports Council International (ACI) in the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) global awards on 9 March 2012.^[9]

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• Cricketer Herschelle Gibbs of South Africa becomes the first cricketer to hit six sixes in one over in a One Day International cricket match and that too in a Cricket World Cup on March 16, 2007. He hit the sixes off the bowling of Daan van Bunge of Netherlands.^[10]

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• For the first time ever a South African whisky, Three Ships, took the title of World's Best Blended Whisky at the 6th Whisky Magazine’s World Whisky Awards on 22 March 2012.^[11]

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• Professor Jill Farrant from the University of Cape Town was recognized for discovering how plants survive under dry conditions at the 14th Annual L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science on 29 March 2012.^[12]
• Johannie Maria Spaan from South Africa received a Unesco-L’Oreal International Fellowship for Young Women in Life Sciences on 29 March 2012 for her non-invasive approach to study the effect of environment, stress and demography on the ability of African buffalo to resist parasitic infections and diseases.^[13]

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April 1

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• South Africa's Standard Bank signed a 20 billion rand ($2.2 billion) financing agreement on 2 April 2013 with the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. to jointly fund renewable energy projects in South Africa.^[14]

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• Anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu, the former archbishop of Cape Town, was awarded the Templeton Prize on 4 April 2013 for his lifelong work to promote love and forgiveness.^[15]

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• As South Africa develops, mortality in the country continues to decline, according to an official announcement by Statistics South Africa on 11 April 2013. The report showed that mortality in the country continued to decline, with a total 543 856 deaths having occurred in 2010. This showed a 6.2% decline from deaths that occurred in 2009.^[16]
• South African Charl Schwartzel won the 2011 Masters Tournament, one of the major championships in professional golf also known as The U.S. Masters, on 11 April 2011 by two strokes over the nearest competitors. It was the fifth Masters title for South Africa and Schwartzel became the third South African to win the Green Jacket.^[17]

April 12

• South African author Marié Heese won the prestigious Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2010 in Regional (Africa) Best Book category for her book "The Double Crown" on April 12, 2010. The book is based on the fascinating and true story of Hatshepsut, the female pharaoh who ruled over Egypt for two decades around 1500 BC.^[18]

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• Jonathan Deal from South Africa won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists, on 15 April 2013 for his efforts to convince the South African government to issue a moratorium on fracking in the arid and water-scarce Karoo region of his country.^[19]

April 16

• South Africa and Germany launched a year-long research co-operation initiative on 16 April 2012 that aims to foster local skills development and innovation, while providing a platform for further joint ventures in science between the two countries.

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• Thabo Mbeki, former South African President, was awarded the prestigious Champions of the Earth Award by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on April 19, 2005. President Thabo Mbeki and the people of South Africa have received the Champions of the Earth award for their commitment to cultural and environmental diversity.^[20]

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• African Green Campus Initiative, a unique project aimed at promoting environmental sustainability and climate change interventions at college and university campuses in South Africa, was launched on 21 April 2012 by the South African Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande.^[21]

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• Mark Shuttleworth, a South African entrepreneur, became the second self-funded space tourist and the first ever African in space on April 25, 2002. After several months of intensive training at Star City in Russia, he launched aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-34 mission as a spaceflight participant.^[22]

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• After a long struggle, South Africa adopted a National Constitution on May 8, 1996 that guarantees equal right for all races.^[23]

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• National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa joined the international JIVE radio astronomy research institute on 10 May 2012 marking a new level of partnership between Europe and South Africa in science.^[24]

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• The Lawhill Maritime Studies programme, a South African educational programme wholly funded by the shipping industry and pioneered by shipping line Safmarine, won the international Seatrade ‘Investment in People’ Award in London on 14 May 2012.^[25]

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• South African writer Jacques Strauss was announced as the regional winner for Africa of the Commonwealth Book Prize on 21 May 2012 for his book The Dubious Salvation of Jack V.^[26]

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• South Africa is to co-host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a global science and engineering project to build the world’s largest radio telescope, that will give mankind its farthest peek into the Universe. The Members of the SKA Organization announced the decision on 25 May 2012.^[27]

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• South Africa has started exporting fresh fruits to Thailand in 2012 after fourteen years of negotiations between the two countries.^[28]
• South Africa gained independence on May 31, 1910 from the United Kingdom. However the Independence Day is celebrated on April 27, known as Freedom Day, marks the first democratic, non-racial elections of 1994.

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• South Africa signed a groundbreaking bilateral air services agreement with Cameroon on 14 June 2011 allowing South African airlines to fly to Cameroon and take on passengers and fly on to second or third countries.^[29]

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• The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, which had, since 1950, required that all South Africans have their race classified and registered at birth. South African government voted to abolish the act on June 17, 1991.

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• South Africa won the 1995 Rugby World Cup. They won the final 15-12 against New Zealand in front of 65 thousands home crowd at the Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg on June 24, 1995.^[30]

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• Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa, served as the Chairman of the African Union - a union consisting of African states and formerly known as Organization of African Unity. Mbeki took the office on July 9, 2002 and served as the first chairman of African Union.^[31]

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• South African scientists, on 12 July 2012, announced they had uncovered the most complete skeleton yet of an ancient relative of man, appears to be around two million years old, hidden in a rock excavated from an archaeological site three years ago.^[32]

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• South African Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was elected on 15 July 2012 to become the first female head of the African Union (AU) Commission at the 19^th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa.^[33]

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• South African President Jacob Zuma was awarded an Honorary Professorship by the Peking University in Beijing on 20 July 2012 for his contribution in the sphere of international relations.^[34]

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• Margaret Gardiner from South Africa won the 1978 Miss Universe contest at the age of 18. It was South Africa's first Miss Universe crown.^[35]

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• The earliest unambiguous evidence for modern human behavior has been discovered by an international team of researchers at the Border Cave in South Africa. The finds revealed that the inhabitants of this cave used notched bones for notational purposes, wooden digging sticks, bone awls, and bone points similar to those used by San as arrowheads. The research was published on 30 July 2012 in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.^[36]

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October 1

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• The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2003 is awarded to the South African writer John Maxwell Coetzee who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider.^[37]

October 3

• South Africa launched the demonstration of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) technology in the Northern Cape, the first in the country, on 3 October 2012. The launch marks the first phase of government's plans to migrate from analogue broadcast signal to digital broadcasting system.^[38]
• South African writer Nadine Gordimer was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature for her novels and short stories in which the consequences of apartheid form the central theme.^[39]

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• The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2002 was awarded jointly to South African biologist Sydney Brenner for their discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death.^[40]

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• South Africa’s first solar plant was launched on 12 October 2012 in Ekurhuleni. The solar power plant produces about 200 kW of electricity through 860 PV solar panels on 2,500 m² of land, and generates enough energy to power an estimated 133 low cost housing units.^[41]

October 13

• A poster titled Cultural Interaction from South Africa was announced as the winner of the 2011 Vettor Giusti Tourism Poster Competition under the Africa region category at the 19th General Assembly of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). The competition is held every two years on the occasion of the UNWTO General Assembly and is an opportunity for member states to promote their destinations around the world.^[42]
• Penelope Coelen from South Africa won the eighth Miss World title on October 13, 1958 at the age of 18. She was the first African to win the title.^[43]

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• Nelson R. Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 1993 for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa.^[44]

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• South Africa won the 2007 Rugby World Cup. It is South Africa’s second Rugby World Cup win. They won the final 15-6 against defending champion England on October 20, 2007 at the Stade de France, France.^[45]

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• Africa's first fact checking website, Africa Check, was launched in South Africa on 31 October 2012, a project devised by the AFP Foundation and run in partnership with the University of the Witwatersrand to hold the country’s leaders accountable.^[46]

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• South Africa and Namibia signed three co-operation agreements on 6 November 2012 focusing on key areas such as trade and investment, energy, transport, environment, science and technology, education, tourism, and security issues.^[47]

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• South Africa was overwhelmingly elected by the Members of the UN General Assembly to the 47-Member Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC) on 8 November 2012. ECOSOC is a principal organ of the UN that is responsible for world economic and social development.^[48]

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• Anneline Kriel of South Africa was awarded the Miss World title in 1974 at the age of 19. Kriel received the title after original winner Helen Morgan from United Kingdom resigned on discovery that Helen had a child.^[43]

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December 1

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• South Africa's Table Mountain was formally inaugurated as one of the world's new seven wonders of nature at a ceremony on 2 December 2012, a move officials hope will bring major economic benefits to the area. The mountain, which towers over Cape Town, was crowned after a global poll conducted by the New7Wonders Foundation based in Zurich, Switzerland.

December 3

• The world's first successful heart transplant was performed by South African cardiac surgeon Dr Chris Barnard in Cape Town on December 3, 1967.^[49]

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• South Africa and Vietnam signed a deal on 10 December 2012 to tackle rhino poaching and the lucrative illicit trade of the creature's horns for use in traditional medicine. The agreement included conservation and protection provisions, as well as a promise to increase law enforcement efforts and information sharing between the two countries.^[50]

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