I believe the Rand, when first implemented in the 1960s, was valued at US$2. It was never as high as US$7, though in the mid-90s it was Zim$7.
During apartheid, the fiscal policy was one of exchange rate control and very strict regulation. For instance, when you went on vacation, there was a limit to how much foreign exchange you could take out of the country
per year and it was noted in your passport. There was up until the mid-90s a roaring blackmarket trade in going overseas for a short trip taking the maximum amount of forex out for somebody else, receiving a small cut which more than paid for your travels. The post-apartheid government instead focused on inflation control. While inflation during the latter stages of apartheid had been well into the double digits, Trevor Manuel was able to bring it down into the mid-single digits, receiving praise from the IMF and other international institutions.
The apartheid-era military was a conscript army with a sizeable "permanent force" of volunteers. Conscription was for whites-only, but there were non-white soldiers too (of course separated by race). This video has a good description (i.e. text describing the video
).
YouTube - South African Armed Forces (SADF,KOEVOET,RECCE,SAP) In the war in Angola the South Africans were supported by the US because amongst the ANC the South Africans were fighting against communist Angolans and Cubans. After democracy thousands of umKhonto weSizwe (MK) and APLA soldiers were amalgamated into the SADF (renamed the SA National Defence Force or SANDF) and then the process of downsizing began. Our military is a bit of a farce these days, what with AIDS debilitating so many of our soldiers, the seemingly endless weapons-related corruption scandals, and the "possessed" robotic arm of an ancient anti-aircraft gun killing 9.
Robot Cannon Kills 9, Wounds 14 on Danger Room Many ex-SADF soldiers became mercenaries, but after the Equatorial Guinea fiasco in 2004(?), a law has been passed where mercenary, or would-be mercenary soldiers need to get government approval. It doesn't help diplomatic relations to have your countrymen hired to attack your ally. Still, many South Africans are contractors in the Middle East, including Iraq.
Yes, we were a nuclear power, though I do not know anything about how we developed it and what we had. I do know that we're the only country to voluntarily decommission our nuclear weapons, though. That was done by the Mandela government.
The apartheid government never had a plan to deport the black South Africans to Zimbabwe. Instead they created "independent" states and "homelands" within South Africa's borders (much easier to get cheap labour that way) and stripped black South Africans of their citizenship of South Africa. You seriously needed a passport if you wanted to enter the Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda or the Ciskei (TBVC States) under apartheid!
Nevertheless, only Israel ever acknowledged the sovereignty of the Transkei (the only state it recognised sovereignty of.) Bophuthatswana looked a little like the Palestinian state under certain proposals; it was scattered all over the north of the country, with one section up against Lesotho, and the majority of it in the northern Cape/western Transvaal near Botswana. The homelands and TBVC states were cunningly devised so that people had to pay tax just to live there, but couldn't afford the tax unless they had a job, basically consigning women and children to the rural backwaters, and forcing men to be migrant labourers in the cities.