Railroads: 20,638 km route distance total; 35,079 km of 1.067-meter gauge trackage (counts double and multiple tracking as single track); 314 km of 610 mm gauge

Highways: 188,309 km total; 54,013 km paved, 134,296 km crushed stone, gravel, or improved earth

Pipelines: 931 km crude oil; 1,748 km refined products; 322 km natural gas

Ports: Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Richard's Bay, Saldanha, Mosselbaai, Walvis Bay

Merchant marine: 7 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 229,245 GRT/218,929 DWT; includes 6 container, 1 vehicle carrier

Civil air: 81 major transport aircraft

Airports: 917 total, 765 usable; 130 with permanent-surface runways; 5 with runways over 3,659 m; 10 with runways 2,440-3,659 m; 224 with runways 1,220-2,439 m

Telecommunications: the system is the best developed, most modern, and has the highest capacity in Africa; it consists of carrier-equipped open-wire lines, coaxial cables, radio relay links, fiber optic cable, and radiocommunication stations; key centers are Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, and Pretoria; 4,500,000 telephones; stations--14 AM, 286 FM, 67 TV; 1 submarine cable; earth stations--1 Indian Ocean INTELSAT and 2 Atlantic Ocean INTELSAT

NOTE: The information regarding South Africa on this page is re-published from the 1991 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of South Africa Communications 1991 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about South Africa Communications 1991 should be addressed to the CIA.