DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Perhaps the most famous South African film is Gavin Hood’s “Tsotsi.” “Tsotsi” is a story about a gang leader. On March 5, 2006, “Tsotsi” won the Academy Award for Foreign Language Film in Los Angeles.
In his speech, Gavin Hood said, “God bless Africa. Wow. I have a speech, it’s in my pocket, but that thing says 38 seconds. But mine is too long. Go to tsotsi.com and there’s a huge list and long people. Because I don’t accept this for myself. This is the best foreign language film ever. For starters, it’s right there. Please stand up, Presley Chweneyagae and Terry Pheto. My two fantastic young leads. the cameras on them , please. Long live Africa. Long live. I have ten seconds. Ten seconds. I just want to thank my fellow nominees who I’ve become very good friends with. We may have foreign language movies, but our stories are the same as your stories. They’re about the human heart and emotion. It says please wrap it up. Thank you very much. Thank you Academy. Thank you.”
Winner: “Tsotsi” (South Africa)
Finalists:
-“Sophie Scholl” (Germany)
-“Merry Christmas” (France)
-“The Beast of the Heart” (Italy)
-“Paradise Now” (Palestinian)
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
For the first time since 1960, South Africa has a delegation to compete in the Olympic Games. Indeed, South Africa sent 94 athletes to the 1992 Olympics, which were held in Barcelona, Spain. The African delegation featured athletes competing in seventeen areas: archery, badminton, boxing, kayaking, cycling, horse riding, fencing, modern pentathlon, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tennis, track and field, weightlifting and wrestling. . They returned to South Africa with two silver medals.
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Nelson Mandela was one of the most important leaders of the 20th century. He played a pivotal role in bringing democracy back to the nation. Under his leadership, South Africa adopted one of the best constitutions in the world. Mandela once said: “And so it has come to pass that today South Africa experiences its rebirth, cleansed of a horrible past, matured from an attempted beginning, and reaching into the future with confidence. Our pledge is: never and never again the laws of our land.” they will separate our people or legalize their oppression and repression”.
Since 1993, in South Africa you can feel the freedom. Unlike Cuba, Iran and Zimbabwe, South Africa is a democracy where civil society has immense influence and power.
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
South Africa has many national parks and reserves that are home to incredible wildlife. The Kruger National Park is one of the most popular tourist places on the African continent. It is one of the most beautiful national parks in the world. The Kruger National Park provides an ideal habitat for animals such as elephants, giraffes, rhinos, monkeys, zebras, cheetahs, hyenas, hippos, gazelles, antelopes, lions and African wild dogs.
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
South Africa has three capitals: Cape Town (legislative), Pretoria (administrative), and Bloemfontein (judicial). However, Johannesburg is the most important economic, industrial and cultural center of South Africa. It is one of the most industrialized cities in the Third World along with Taipei (Taiwan), Mexico City (Mexico City), and Seoul (South Korea). In 2006, Johannesburg had a population of 2.6 million.
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
For the first time, Africa will host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The World Cup will be held in South Africa. In 2000, FIFA President Sepp Blatter wanted FIFA to vote for South Africa. However, New Zealand’s Charlie Dempsey ran away from the final vote and was stole by Germany. For this reason, Germany hosted the World Cup in 2006.
In 2007, Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa, said: “I have no doubt that our local organizing committee, government at all levels and everyone involved will do the work necessary to ensure that we put on a better tournament in 2010 than the excellent 2006″. Germany World Cup”.
He also noted that millions of dollars have been spent in recent years to reform South Africa’s sports system.
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
About half of the world’s gold is produced in South Africa.
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
South Africa has many famous people: Christian Barnard (surgeon), Miriam Makeba (singer and AIDS activist), Caron Bernstein (model, actress and singer), Nelson Mandela (former president and AIDS activist), Nadine Gordimer (writer), Athol Fugard (writer), Mathosa (singer), Zola Budd (athlete), Charlize Theron (actress), Ilene Hamann (actress and model), Harry Oppenheimer (anti-apartheid industrialist), Richard Goldstone (international judge), Musetta Vander ( actress and model), Danny Koppel (singer), Zakes Mokae (actor), Juliet Prowse (dancer and actress) and Joe Mafela (actor).
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
South African Penny Heyns won the 100m and 200m breaststroke events at the 1996 Summer Olympics. She is considered one of South Africa’s national heroines. Like Anthony Nesty (Suriname), Felipe Muñoz (Mexico City), Claudia Poll (Costa Rica) and Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe), Penny Heyns is a Third World swimming icon.
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
South Africa has many UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Greater Saint Lucia Wetland Park (1999), Robben Island (1999), Drakensberg Park (2000), Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape (2003), Vredefort Dome (2005), and the Cape Floral Region Protected Areas (2004).
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
On March 26, 1998, the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, visited South Africa.
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
South Africa has more Nobel laureates than Mexico (3), India (2), Brazil (0), Argentina (3), Cuba (0), and the People’s Republic of China (1).
South Africa has six Nobel Prize winners:
1960: Albert J. Luthuli (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate)
1982: Aaron Klug (Nobel Prize in Chemistry)
1984: Bishop Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate)
1991: Nadine Gordimer (Nobel Prize for Literature)
1993: Nelson Mandela and Frederik W. de Klerk (Nobel Peace Prize)
2003: John Maxwell Coetzee (Nobel Prize for Literature)
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
The people of South Africa are proud that their country is a society of people from different backgrounds. Many people are a mix of various nationalities and races. About 2 million Asians live in South Africa. The ancestors of most of them came from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives and Sri Lanka.
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
South African superstar Charlize Theron is an icon in Africa. She is a woman that she cannot help but admire.
Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry worked as a model in the 1980s. Berry isn’t the only Hollywood star who made a living doing odd jobs before she became famous. For many actresses, this first experience was useful in her acting career. South African actress Charlize Theron – who has appeared in more than twenty films in a film career spanning more than ten years – was a supermodel in the 1990s.
Hollywood actress Charlize Theron was born on August 7, 1975, in Benoni, Gauteng, South Africa. She has German and French ancestry. Charlize grew up to be a beautiful young woman who attracted the attention of many people. She speaks English, Afrikaans and Xhosa.
Charlize had been an international model since she was 16 years old. She started her career in Milan, Italy. She became an actress in late 1996. On February 29, 2004, Charlize won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Aileen Wuournos in the movie “Monster.” She became the first African actress to win an Oscar for Best Actress in history.
Charlize Theron is one of the most beautiful women in the world, the elegant clothes she wears complement her perfect body.
Filmography:”Celebrity” (1998), “Reindeer Games” (2000), “The Yards” (2000), “Men of Honor” (2000), “The Italian Job” (2003),
“Monster” (2003), “The Life and Death of Peters Sellers” (2004), “North Country” (2005) and “The Brazilian Job (2006).
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer is a human rights activist. Her proudest moment was when she stood trial in a treason trial in 1986 on behalf of 22 South African anti-apartheid activists.
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
South Africa has had famous athletes in the past century: Reggie Walker (1908 100m Olympic gold medalist), Esther Brand (1952 High Jump Olympic gold medalist), Joan Harrison (swimmer, won 1 Olympic gold medalist in 1952) and Sam Atkinson (Olympic gold medalist in 110 m hurdles in 1928).
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Mathosa was one of the best singers in South Africa. She was called “the Virgin of the townships of South Africa”. In the 1990s, Mathosa was considered one of the most talented artists in Africa.
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
The 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to South African author John Maxwell Coetzee. He was the fourth African Nobel laureate for literature after Nigeria’s Wolle Soyinka (1986), Egypt’s Naguib Mahfouz (1988), and Coetzee’s compatriot Nadine Gordimer (1991). JM Coetzee was born on February 9, 1940 in Cape Town, South Africa. The Swedish Academy cited him as an author “who in countless ways portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider”. Without a doubt, Coetzee is one of the most famous South African authors of the 21st century.
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
South Africa hosted the 1999 Pan African Games.
DID YOU KNOW THAT…
Golf is a popular sport in South Africa. South Africa has had famous golfers throughout its sporting history, in the 1960s and 1970s Gary Player was one of the best golfers in the world. He won many tournaments such as the Masters Golf Tournament (1961, 1974 and 1978), the US Open (1965), the PGA Championship (1962 and 1972) and the British Open (1959, 1968 and 1974). Bobby Locke won the British Open (1949, 1950, 1952 and 1957). In addition, South Africa twice won the World Cup of Golf: 1965 (Gary Player and Harold Henning) and 1974 (Bobby Cole and Dale Hayes).
