After Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria the action at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa continues in five smaller cities.

PORT ELIZABETH: South Africa's "Friendly City" is located in Eastern Cape province, a region steeped in political history.

The Eastern Cape has given South Africa a phalanx of anti- apartheid icons, including the country's first black president Nelson Mandela, deceased black consciousness activist Steve Biko, deceased former ANC leader Oliver Tambo and other luminaries.

With its 40 kilometres of sandy beaches, Port Elizabeth, population 1 million, is the country's water sports capital.

It is also a jump-off point for exploring the province, including the traditional Xhosa villages of the Umtata region, where Mandela was born, and the remote, unspoilt Wild Coast.

The main language of the Eastern Cape is Xhosa, a language punctuated by clicks that the foreign tongue finds hard to master.

Although the fields and beaches of the province are full of makeshift pitches, football is not a strong point in the Eastern Cape, which does not have a team in the Premier Soccer League.

Port Elizabeth got its first dedicated football stadium for the World Cup, in which it will host the third- and fourth-place playoffs.

The 47,000-seat Nelson Mandela Bay stadium, which is set beside a lake and has a striking white fluted roof, was the first of the five new stadiums to be completed in 2009.

RUSTENBURG: The million-strong capital of North-West Province, is home of the Bafokeng nation, one of Africa's richest tribes.

The Bafokeng's wealth lies under their feet - in the vast Merensky reef, which contains the world's largest deposits of the precious metal platinum that mining companies pay handsome royalties to exploit.

Rustenburg itself is a small, slightly sleepy city nestled at the base of the Magaliesberg mountains, 160 kilometres from Johannesburg. Most people work in mining or related activities but agriculture is also an important activity.

Many of the farms are owned by Afrikaners, whose forefathers trekked here from the Cape to flee English rule.

One of the province's biggest attractions is Sun City, a luxury resort of hotels and casinos built into the mountains in a setting straight out of a James Bond movie.

Another tourist hotspot is the vast Pilanesberg National Park - the closest place to Johannesburg or Pretoria where you can see the "Big Five" African animals - the elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, leopard and lion - in the wild.

The England team will be staying in Rustenburg, where they meet the United States on June 12 in the Royal Bafokeng Stadium.

Built with Bafokeng money, the 42,000-seater stadium underwent a minor upgrade for the World Cup and will host five first-round and one round of 16 game.

BLOEMFONTEIN: The city of Bloemfontein, population 650,000, is situated in central Free State province, South Africa's agricultural heartland.

Situated about 400 kilometres south-west of Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, like Pretoria, is rugby country, but supporters of Bloemfontein Celtic football team are among the most enthusiastic of any team in the country.

Bloemfontein was one of four cities to host the eight-country Confederations Cup in June 2009.

During the two weeks of the tournament, thousands of people turned up at Free State Stadium to watch the ultimately victorious Brazilians in training.

South Africans tend to view Bloemfontein as a place to rest and refuel on the main road south-west out of Johannesburg to Cape Town.

But the city is more than a way station. Under a decentralization deal in 1910 that saw Cape Town retain parliament and Pretoria the seat of government Bloemfontein got the Supreme Court of Appeal, making it the judicial capital.

Although the Free State is characterized by flat fields of wheat and corn, there is some relief on the horizon towards the border with Lesotho, where the plains give way to the Maluti Mountains.

Free State Stadium can hold 45,000 spectators and will host five first round games and one round of 16 game.

NELSPRUIT: Nelspruit, capital of Mpumalanga province, is the gateway to Kruger National Park, South Africa's top tourist destination.

Situated about 350km east of Johannesburg in the bushveld (savanna), the city of 200,000 people is a stone's throw from the vast park, which occupies an area about the size of Belgium.

Around a million visitors flock here each year to try spot the "Big Five" African animals - the elephant, buffalo, rhino, lion and leopard.

Elephants are a dime a dozen in Kruger, thanks to a 21-year-old ban on the ivory trade.

Other tourist attractions around Nelspruit include Pilgrim's Rest, a gold rush town dating to the late 1800s that has been preserved as a living museum, and the Blyde River Canyon, the world's third-largest canyon.

Nelspruit is also next door to the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique, whose white-sand beaches are starting to attract global attention, 18 years after the end of a civil war.

For the World Cup, Nelspruit had to build a new stadium, which will be used to host four first round games.

In a nod to its surroundings, Mbombela Stadium, which fits 44,000 people, is supported by 18 giant orange pylons in the shape of giraffes.

POLOKWANE: Polokwane is situated about halfway between Johannesburg and the Zimbabwe border in northermost Limpopo province.

Like Mpumalanga, much of Limpopo is covered in savanna or game-rich African grasslands. The iconic African baobab tree, also known as the upside-down tree because the skinny branches protruding from its stout trunk look like roots.

Limpopo and southern Zimbabwe are also home to some of southern Africa's richest archaeological troves.

Mapungubwe National Park, a World Heritage Site near the Zimbabwe border, marks the site where a highly-developed southern African kingdom that was trading gold and ivory as far away as China flourished around 1,000 years ago.

Polokwane, the provincial capital, is a small city of 0.5 million inhabitants and the last major centre before Zimbabwe on the Great Road North.

World Cup matches will be held at the new Peter Mokaba Stadium, which is named after a controversial deceased former leader of the ruling African National Congress's Youth League (ANCYL).

Built next to an older stadium, also called Peter Mokaba, it will hold four first-round games and can hold 45,000 people.