Short answers, pulled from the story.
South Africa has no single legally defined capital and splits its government across three cities. Pretoria is the administrative capital, Cape Town is the legislative capital as the seat of Parliament, and Bloemfontein is regarded as the judicial capital.
South Africa is called the rainbow nation to describe its diversity of cultures, languages, and religions, a phrase that gained currency especially in the wake of apartheid. The country carries an official name in 12 official languages.
Apartheid ended with South Africa's first universal elections in 1994, won overwhelmingly by the African National Congress. The National Party government had begun dismantling it in 1990 by lifting the ban on the ANC and releasing Nelson Mandela after 27 years in prison.
South Africa has a Gini coefficient of 0.67, the highest in the world, making it the most unequal society. Around 55% of South Africans live below the upper-bound poverty line while the wealthiest 10% hold over 70% of national wealth, and about 32% of the population is unemployed.
South Africa is the only African nation to have successfully developed nuclear weapons, covertly assembling six operational devices between 1980 and 1990. It voluntarily dismantled the arsenal in 1991, becoming the first country to relinquish its nuclear capability.
South Africa has the largest economy in Africa by nominal GDP, exceeding US$400 billion, and is the most industrialised and diversified on the continent. It was the world's leading gold producer for much of the 20th century, peaking at nearly 1,000 tonnes in 1970, and holds the world's largest reserves of platinum group metals.