South Africa is known as a tourist destination and of course tourism also plays an important role in the local economy. Last week we had a look at how travel and nature make South Africa a special country and today we focus on businesses and other contributors to the economy in South Africa.
- The Rand Refinery is the largest refinery of gold in the world.
- The South African oil company SASOL has established the only commercially proven oil from coal operations in the world.
- The world’s biggest producer of non-fuel minerals is South African company Anglo-American Corporation.
- The University of South Africa UNISA is a pioneer of tertiary distance education and is believed to be the largest correspondence university in the world with 250,000 students.
Eskom, the national electricity utility, is the world’s fourth largest in terms of both sales volume and normal capacity. - The De Beers Group of companies control more than 80% of the world supply of rough diamonds.
- SABMiller ranks as the largest brewing company in the world by volume. It supplies up to 50% of China’s beer.
- Samancor Limited is the world’s largest producer by sales of manganese and chrome products.
- The Johannesburg Stock Exchange was the 7th best performing stock market in 2005, according to the World Federation of Exchanges.
- Stellenbosch University was the first university in the world to design and launch a microsatellite.
- South Africa is the sole producer of the Mercedes Benz C Class, right-hand drive vehicles.
- KSDP Pentagraph is rated as the world’s second best design company by British design magazine, ‘Creative Review’. The company is responsible for the new-look packaging of ‘Fanta’ and design modifications of ‘Coca-Cola’ soft drinks worldwide.