Quiz on South Africa: Provinces and Capitals on a Map

Tap or click the province the question names; in Name it, the capital comes next.

Quiz on South Africa: Provinces and Capitals on a Map

Name Date

Tap Free State

1 of 9

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
More options

Write the name of each numbered province, then its capital.Answer key

  1. Eastern Cape · Bhisho
  2. Free State · Bloemfontein
  3. Gauteng · Johannesburg
  4. KwaZulu-Natal · Pietermaritzburg
  5. Limpopo · Polokwane
  6. Mpumalanga · Mbombela
  7. North West · Mahikeng
  8. Northern Cape · Kimberley
  9. Western Cape · Cape Town

Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2. Licence: public domain.

Each province is a button. Use the arrow keys to move between them and Enter to choose. Names are read out in Study, and once a province is answered.

Next step Zoom out: every country of Africa on a mapPrint this map blank, numbered or named

All 9 provinces on the diagram

Show the list
  1. Eastern Cape (capital: Bhisho) Capital: Bhisho; the largest city is Gqeberha. Gqeberha was formerly called Port Elizabeth, and part of this shore is known as the Wild Coast.
  2. Free State (capital: Bloemfontein) Capital: Bloemfontein, which is also the national judicial capital. The province lies between two rivers, the Vaal in the north and the Orange in the south.
  3. Gauteng (capital: Johannesburg) Capital: Johannesburg, not Pretoria, which is also here. Gauteng is the smallest province and holds the largest share of the people.
  4. KwaZulu-Natal (capital: Pietermaritzburg) Capital: Pietermaritzburg; the largest city is Durban. The province has the second largest population, and the Drakensberg mountains rise in its west.
  5. Limpopo (capital: Polokwane) Capital: Polokwane, once called Pietersburg. The province is named after the Limpopo River, which flows along its northern border.
  6. Mpumalanga (capital: Mbombela) Capital: Mbombela, once called Nelspruit. The name Mpumalanga means the place where the sun rises.
  7. North West (capital: Mahikeng) Capital: Mahikeng; the largest city is Rustenburg. The province lies on the Botswana border and is known as the Platinum Province.
  8. Northern Cape (capital: Kimberley) Capital: Kimberley, in the largest province by area. The Northern Cape takes up almost a third of the country and has the smallest share of the people.
  9. Western Cape (capital: Cape Town) Capital: Cape Town, where the national Parliament sits. The Atlantic Ocean lies to its west and the Indian Ocean to its south.

How this list was compiled: Province names, capitals, areas and the facts in the detail lines follow the South African Government's own page, South Africa's provinces, https://www.gov.za/about-sa/south-africas-provinces, read on 2026-10-01 (it gives Stats SA's Census 2022 and mid-year estimates of 2024 as its source): the nine provinces, each capital, the three national capitals and what sits in each, Gauteng as the smallest province with the largest share of the people, the Northern Cape as the largest with the smallest share, KwaZulu-Natal's second largest population, the Vaal and Orange rivers, the Limpopo River, the Drakensberg, the Wild Coast, the meaning of Mpumalanga, the Botswana border and the Platinum Province, and the two oceans of the Western Cape. Largest cities, the earlier names Port Elizabeth, Pietersburg, Nelspruit, Bisho and Mafikeng, and the short forms EC, FS, GP, KZN, LP, MP, NC, NW and WC were checked the same day against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_of_South_Africa. Positions of the shapes and of the nine capital points come from Natural Earth. Neighbors and coasts named in the hints were worked out from the drawing itself. Lesotho, Eswatini and the neighboring countries are drawn as land and are not asked; the Prince Edward Islands are outside the frame. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_admin_1_states_provinces (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_admin_1_states_provinces.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Surrounding land from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_admin_0_countries (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_admin_0_countries.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Capitals from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_populated_places_simple (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_populated_places_simple.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection centred on 28.7°S 24.7°E. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. Licence: public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)

How it works

This quiz on South Africa asks for its nine provinces on a blank map. In Name it a right name brings a second question, the provincial capital. Lesotho and Eswatini are drawn as land and are never asked.

Read the full guide

Where the slips happen

Gauteng is the smallest shape, tucked between North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. Three provinces carry Cape in their names and fill the south and west. A wrong tap earns a hint before the second try, and after the round one button replays only the ones you missed.

The capital comes second

Find it only asks for the shape. In Name it a province counts when both its name and its capital are right. Three capitals are not their province's largest city: Bhisho, Pietermaritzburg and Mahikeng. Print blank gives a numbered map with nine lines to fill in.

  • Start with the coast: Northern Cape and Western Cape on the Atlantic side, then Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal up the Indian Ocean.
  • The Free State touches six other provinces on this map, more than any other, so learn its neighbors as a ring.
  • Typed answers accept KZN for KwaZulu-Natal, and the older spellings Bisho and Mafikeng for two of the capitals.

Questions and answers

How many provinces does South Africa have?

Nine: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West and Western Cape. The Northern Cape is the largest, almost a third of the land. Gauteng is the smallest and has the most people.

What are the three capitals of South Africa?

Pretoria is the administrative capital, Cape Town the legislative capital, where Parliament sits, and Bloemfontein the judicial capital. This quiz asks the nine provincial capitals, which include Cape Town and Bloemfontein but not Pretoria: the capital of Gauteng is Johannesburg.

Is this a quiz on South African history?

No. It is a geography quiz: the nine provinces as shapes on a map, then their capitals. After each answer one line gives a checked fact about the province, such as its largest city or the ocean on its coast.

More quizzes

Show 7 more

Browse Geography Quizzes