15 Differences between South Africa and Australia

Have you ever been overseas and been mistaken for an Australian? It happens!

Besides both wearing green and gold, being able to vote and drink at 18 and surprisingly both eating our national animals…what are the differences?

[vc_button title=”1″ size=”size_large2″ color=”default”] South Africans say “Sharp” (“shup”) while the Aussies say “No worries”

At the end of the day they both really mean the same thing. And that is that everything is good and in order.

[vc_button title=”2″ size=”size_large2″ color=”default”] South Africans call it “Ubuntu” and Aussies call it “mateship”

It is all about comradeship. Stick together and help each other out.

[vc_button title=”3″ size=”size_large2″ color=”default”] South Africans have Table Mountain while the Aussies have Uluru.

Essentially they are big rocks that people travel to go and see.

[vc_button title=”4″ size=”size_large2″ color=”default”] South Africans say “braai” while Aussies say “barbeque” (or “barbie”)

I say tomahto and you say tomayto.

[vc_button title=”5″ size=”size_large2″ color=”default”] If you are driving 120km/hr on the highway – in South Africa you are a slow coach and in Australia you are being arrested.

…and no 100 bucks is not going to get you out of it!

[vc_button title=”6″ size=”size_large2″ color=”default”] South Africans eat Bar Ones and Aussies eat Mars Bars.

Ok, in my opinion they are both pretty delicious.

[vc_button title=”7″ size=”size_large2″ color=”default”] South Africans eat Marmite and Aussies eat Vegemite

Who is copying who now?

[vc_button title=”8″ size=”size_large2″ color=”default”] A jersey to a South African is something that keeps them warm while a jersey to an Aussie is a type of cow.

Trust me; this can get confusing in a conversation.

[vc_button title=”9″ size=”size_large2″ color=”default”] South Africa has 11 official languages while Australia is predominantly English.

If you don’t speak English in Australia I don’t think anybody will understand you.

[vc_button title=”10″ size=”size_large2″ color=”default”] South Africa’s national anthem contains 5 languages and Australia’s only contains one… English.

And a lot of South Africans don’t know which 5 languages it contains or what it means. (FYI – it’s Xhosa, Zulu, Sesotho, English and Afrikaans.)

[vc_button title=”11″ size=”size_large2″ color=”default”] South Africans call them “bakkies” and Aussies call them “utes”

Whaaat?

[vc_button title=”12″ size=”size_large2″ color=”default”] Government term is 5 years in South Africa with parliament consisting of 400 members, while the Australian government has a term of 3 years and only has 150 members.

With 400 members in parliament, South Africa should be running like a well-oiled machine.

[vc_button title=”13″ size=”size_large2″ color=”default”] GDP of South Africa is $349.8 billion and the GDP of Australia is $1.454 trillion (according to the World Bank).

Did someone say trillion?

[vc_button title=”14″ size=”size_large2″ color=”default”] Unemployment in South Africa is 25%  and unemployment in Australia is 6.3% *.

Eish! (* – Figures from Statistics South Africa for the second quarter of 2015, and from Australia Bureau of Statistics for July 2015.)

[vc_button title=”15″ size=”size_large2″ color=”default”] The population of South Africa is 53.2 million with 40.02 people per square kilometre and Australia is 23.1 million with less than 3 people per square kilometre.

Eish, Australia is such a big place with so few people…

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And those are my 15 differences.

Please let me know other differences you can think of. Place them in the comments below.