Localised outbreaks.

Uncertain

Representative Democracy

26,231,000, falling. 18% retrofitted against ßehemoth.

Technology current. Biomedical and quantum-engineering industries unsurpassed. Local nets clean.

Power generation consists of a combination of solar, wind, and (predominantly) geothermal. South Africa is unusual in that it still acts as a net exporter of raw materials, primarily metallic ores and alloys. Agricultural capacity severely curtailed due to chronic drought and ongoing heat waves. Virtually all food production hails from either land-locked aquaculture (primarily euphausiids and cichlids) or industrial photosynthesis; note, however, that S'African Calvin cyclers produce nutrients of markedly higher quality than those of other regimes. Fresh water in extremely short supply; previously supplied from icebergs wrangled from Antarctica, prior to global restrictions on long-range shipping. S'Africa's water presently hails almost entirely from desalinating plants, and is strictly rationed.

Although strongly impacted by the African sex plagues of the early twenty-first century, South Africa's advanced technology and rigorous countermeasures spared it from the same degree of devastation that ravaged other areas of that continent (S'African medical expertise was, in fact, famously instrumental in bringing an end to those plagues). Combined with higher standards of living and a balanced sex ratio, this has left the regime relatively unsusceptible to the vendetta theocracies prevailing among its neighbors. South Africa is also, to all appearances, a vital ally in the ongoing fight against ßehemoth, and outbreaks within its borders are still relatively infrequent. These facts all weigh towards a "low" threat potential.

There have, however, been disturbing suggestions that South Africa may be involved in the clandestine missile attacks on North America. They have also been implicated in the dissemination of mutagenic aerosols recently confirmed spreading northwards from Latin America. We must therefore consider the possibility that South Africa is pursuing a hidden agenda beyond the realm of CSIRA's priorities, and perhaps even opposed to them. In this light, their biomedical sophistication could prove more of a threat even than the pro-extinction efforts of the "Meltdown Madonna" regimes. Further, South Africa's peculiar, almost pre-Millennial system of "representative democracy" is notoriously untrustworthy in terms of consistent foreign policy. Threat Potential thus remains unclear.