South Africa

17-23 October 2027 | Indaba Hotel & Conference Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is one of Africa’s top three economies alongside Nigeria and Egypt. The country’s broad-based economy is one of the most advanced amongst developing economies and boasts infrastructure to match any first-world country.

Travel to other destinations in the southern African region is possible. Just two are mentioned here.

  • The Kruger National Park, famous not only for the Big Five African animals but also for ecological management, is about 5 hours’ drive or 1 hour by air from Johannesburg. The park is just under 20 000 km2 in area: about half the size of Switzerland.
  • Cape Town is famous for the Table Mountain cable car, the profound historical significance of Robben Island, and the unique indigenous Cape Floral Kingdom. The winelands of the Cape of Good Hope are within easy reach of day tours.

Southern Africa

This conference is hosted by SAPhysNet, a physics collaboration across the Southern African region: Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, together with the South African Institute of Physics. In the region, a few examples of notable facilities are:

  • Namibia hosts the High Energy Stereoscopic System H.E.S.S.
  • The Square Kilometre Array SKA-Mid Core Site is located in the in the remote Karoo region of South Africa. Antenna stations will be situated in Botswana, Ghana, Ghana, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, and Namibia.
  • The Southern African Large Telescope is situated in Sutherland, South Africa.
Climate
South Africa’s climatic conditions generally range from Mediterranean in the southwestern corner of South Africa to temperate in the interior plateau, and subtropical in the northeast. A small area in the northwest has a desert climate. Most of the country has warm, sunny days and cool nights

See https://en.climate-data.org/africa/south-africa/gauteng/johannesburg-3221/

October is early summer.

Temperatures: Average daily highs range from 24°C to 28°C, while nights cool down to a pleasant 15°C.

Rainfall: Summer is the rainy season, bringing the vast majority of the city’s annual precipitation.

The Weather Pattern: Rain typically falls as brief, dramatic late-afternoon thunderstorms accompanied by spectacular thunder and lightning.

Sun: the altitude is 1700 m. Sun protection is highly recommended.

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) severely affects Southern Africa, primarily during its austral summer (November–March). El Niño phases trigger warmer and drier-than-average conditions. Conversely, La Niña phases typically bring increased rainfall.

More: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ade60e/pdf

Size
South Africa is the 24th largest country geographically, has the 25th largest population, the 33rd largest economy by GDP, the 30th largest by purchasing power parity (PPP) and ranks 19th in terms of foreign debt (Economist Pocket World 2020 – comparing 190 countries)
Languages

South Africa has 11 official languages. English is predominantly used in business and education, and in physics.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC), incorporating 16 countries, has four official languages of communication: English, French, Portuguese, and Swahili. Across the 16 member states, the region is highly diverse, with hundreds of indigenous African languages spanning the Bantu, Khoisan, and Germanic language families.

https://southafrica-info.com/arts-culture/the-languages-of-south-africa/

Johannesburg
Johannesburg, South Africa’s biggest city and capital of Gauteng province, began as a 19th-century gold-mining settlement. Its sprawling Soweto township was once home to Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. Mandela’s former residence is now the Mandela House museum. Other Soweto museums that recount the struggle to end segregation include the somber Apartheid Museum and Constitution Hill, a former prison complex
Health
Please check with your travel doctor on required immunisations. Due to its altitude of 1700 m, Johannesburg, in Gauteng province, is not in a malaria region.