South Africa Map with Provinces

South Africa has 9 provinces: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, Northern Cape and Western Cape. The nine date from 27 April 1994, when the interim Constitution replaced the earlier four provinces and the ten homelands. Each province has its own legislature and a premier who heads its executive. Merafong was moved from Gauteng to North West in 2005 and returned to Gauteng in 2009 under the Sixteenth Amendment, the last change to any provincial boundary.

South Africa has three capitals, each seating one branch of government. Pretoria, in Gauteng, is the executive capital. Cape Town, in Western Cape, is the legislative capital, where Parliament sits. Bloemfontein, in Free State, is the judicial capital, home to the Supreme Court of Appeal. The arrangement dates from the Union of 1910. Johannesburg, the largest city in the country, is the capital of Gauteng province but not a national capital. The map labels all three national capitals and Johannesburg.

Northern Cape alone makes up roughly 30 percent of South Africa's total area of 1,220,813 km², with 372,889 km² (Stats SA, Census 2011), which is about 20 times the size of Gauteng. Northern Cape is larger than Eastern Cape and Free State together, which come to 298,791 km². It borders Namibia and Botswana and has the Atlantic coast on its west. Eastern Cape ranks second at 168,966 km² and Free State third at 129,825 km². These three provinces together cover about 55 percent of the country.

Gauteng has the smallest area of any South African province, 18,178 km² (Stats SA, Census 2011), or about 1.5 percent of the national total. It has no sea coast and no international border, so all four of its neighbors are other provinces: Free State, Limpopo, North West and Mpumalanga. Its only lake shore on the map is the Vaal Dam, which it shares with Free State and Mpumalanga. Its ISO 3166-2 code is ZA-GP. The code was ZA-GT until 2 March 2020, and the map still uses the old id internally.

Gauteng, with 15,931,824 people (Stats SA, 2024 mid-year estimate), has more residents than Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West combined, which come to 15,615,559. That is about a quarter of the national total. KwaZulu-Natal, at 12,312,712, is the only other province above 10 million, and the two together hold about 45 percent of South Africans. Northern Cape has the fewest, 1,372,943, about one twelfth of Gauteng's figure. The nine estimates add up to 63,015,906, and they are mid-year estimates, not census counts.

The nine provincial capitals are Bhisho in Eastern Cape, Bloemfontein in Free State, Johannesburg in Gauteng, Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal, Polokwane in Limpopo, Mbombela in Mpumalanga, Mahikeng in North West, Kimberley in Northern Cape and Cape Town in Western Cape. Mbombela was formerly called Nelspruit and Polokwane was formerly Pietersburg. Mahikeng and the adjoining town of Mmabatho were merged after 1994, so some sources give Mmabatho. Of the nine provincial capitals, the map labels only Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Johannesburg, so use this list for the other six.

Lesotho is not part of South Africa. It is an independent country that South Africa surrounds on all sides, and it is drawn in grey on this map. Its border runs along KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and Eastern Cape. Eswatini, on the north-eastern edge of South Africa beside Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, is also an independent country and also drawn in grey, so the nine provinces stand out. Together with Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, they are South Africa's six land neighbors.

The map shows mainland South Africa. The Prince Edward Islands remain South African territory and belong to Western Cape for legal and electoral purposes. They lie about 1,800 km south-east of the mainland and are left off so the provinces fill the frame. Marion Island and Prince Edward Island cover about 340 km² together, so even Gauteng, the smallest drawn province at 18,178 km², is more than 50 times larger. This map draws Western Cape without them, as its mainland part only.

Open the map in the free Ultimaps editor. It is free to use and needs no account. You can click a province to color it by hand, or upload a table of province names and values to color the provinces by your data. Add pins and labels, then share the finished map by link or embed it on a website. A free export is a standard PNG with a small Ultimaps credit. High-resolution PNG, SVG and PDF export are Pro features.