Q 01/05

South Africa has three capital cities. Which one is the administrative capital?

A) Cape Town

B) Bloemfontein

C) Pretoria

D) Johannesburg

Answer · why

C) Pretoria

Cape Town is the legislative capital as seat of Parliament and Bloemfontein the judicial capital; the Constitutional Court sits in Johannesburg.

Q 02/05

What is South Africa's largest and most populous city?

A) Johannesburg

B) Cape Town

C) Durban

D) Pretoria

Answer · why

A) Johannesburg

Cape Town and Durban come next; Johannesburg's stock exchange is the largest in Africa.

Q 03/05

How many official languages does South Africa have?

A) 4

B) 12

C) 9

D) 11

Answer · why

B) 12

It was 11 until South African Sign Language was recognised in 2023; Zulu is the most spoken first language.

Q 04/05

Which language is spoken by the largest share of South Africans as a first language?

A) Zulu

B) English

C) Afrikaans

D) Xhosa

Answer · why

A) Zulu

The 2022 census put Zulu at 24.4%, Xhosa at 16.6% and Afrikaans at 10.6%.

Q 05/05

Afrikaans developed mainly from which European language?

A) Dutch

B) German

C) Portuguese

D) English

Answer · why

A) Dutch

Around 90-95% of its vocabulary is Dutch in origin, and it was once dismissively called "kitchen Dutch".