People

Population: 43,931,000. Age Distibution: <15:39%, 65>4%.
Population Density: 92 per sq. mile. Urban: 57%
Ethnic Groups: Black: 75%: White: 14%; Coloured: 9%; Indian: 3%.
Principal Languages: Afrikaans, English, Nguni, and Sotho.
Religions: Mainly Christian, Hindu and Muslim.

Geography

Area: 473,290sq. miles - about twice the size of Texas.
Location: At the southern extreme of Africa.
Neighbours: Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe on North, Mozambique and Swaziland on East; surrounds Lesotho.
Capitals: Cape Town (legislative), Pretoria (administrative), Bloemfontein (judicial).
Cities: Durban- 1.1min., Cape Town - 1,9min., Johannesburg - 1,9min., and Pretoria - 1,0min.

Government

Type: Federal Republic with bicameral parliament and universal suffrage.
Head of State and Government: Pres. Thabo Mbeki.
Local Divisions: 9 Provinces.
Defense: 2,5% of GDP (1993)

Economy

Industries: Steel, tyres, motors, textiles & plastics.
Chief Crops: Corn, wool, diary products, grain, tobacco, sugar & fruit.
Minerals: Gold (largest producer), chromium, antimony, coal, iron, manganese, nickel, phosfates, tin, uranium & platinum.
Other Resources: Wool. Arable land 10%
Labour Force: 10% agricultural, 20% industrial, and 55 % service.

Finance

Monetary unit: Rand (Jan' 04: 1.00=$0.17 US)
Gross domestic products(1992) : $115bin. Per capital GDP $2,800.
$21,2 bin.; partners: Ger. 19%, US 68%, UK 12%.
Exports: (1992): $23.8bin.:partners US 43%, Japan 9%.
Tourism (1990) : $1.0bin. receipts.
National budget (1993): $36 bin.
International reserves less gold (2/94) : $956min. Gold:4.84 min. ox.
Consumer prices (change in 1993) : 9.7%

Transportation

Railroads: Length: 13,432 miles
Motor Vehicles: 3,4 min. passenger cars, and 1,5.min comm. vehicles.
Civil Aviation: 5,2 bin. passenger miles.
Chief Ports: Durban, Cape Town, East London & Port Elizabeth.

Communication

Television sets: 1 per 11 persons.
Radios : 1 per 3,9 persons
Telephones: 1 per 7,5 persons.
Daily newspaper circ.: 38 per 1000 pop.

Education

Literacy: 99% (Whites), 69% (Asians), 62% (Coloured), and 50% (Blacks).

Health

Life expectancy at birth (1994): 62 years for males; 68 years for females.
Births (per 1,000 pop): 34
Deaths (per 1,000 pop): 8.
Natural increases: 2,6%.
Physicians: 1 per 1,271 persons.
Infant mortality (per 1,000 live births in 1994): 47.

First held in 1987 in Cape Town, the Sabaki Challenge Karate Championships merged in 1996 with the annual Invitational Championships.
Since then, it has grown into an International Tournament with hundreds of competitors from all over.

South Africa has just finished hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup. What a spectacular event it was. We then hosted the World Cup for Ashihara Karate in October of the same year.
See

The 2nd Sabaki Challenge World Cup will be held in 2017 - see the first one at the bottom of this page.

Kaicho Hoosain Narker’s
My Karate Odyssey is now available read more ...

The 2016 World Kumite Championships was held in Pattaya, Thailand was an event that showcased the true spirit of the Martial Arts and had top fighters from all over the World.  Ashihara Karate attended once again and will use the Sabaki Challenge to select fighters for future WKO events.