Is South Africa considered a third world country?

No.

South Africa has been ranked as the leading emerging economy in Africa and the only country on the continent to be ranked in the top 15 worldwide.

In the Global South, some examples of the well-developed countries include: Australia, South Africa, and Chile.

http://geography.about.com/od/countryinformation/a...

A 3rd world nation is a country that does not comply with capitalism or communism, a quality many of those nations are very terrible, so they are most likely associated with excessive poverty stages. South Africa is among the few nations on the continent no longer regarded a 3rd-world nation.

Since it doesn't belong to the 1 or the 2nd,it then belongs to the third world country.

the whole third world thing is out of date, it used to be that the western nations were known as the first world, the communist block was the second world, and third world countries were everyone else, South Africa would be considered a developing country, but with a higher education level and lots of natural resources they should be the first African nation to move up

erm it is more likely to be a developing country,rather to say it third world.But it is considered as more developed than other countries in the african continent.overall,i would say its a developing country :) choose me:))

I think so, parts probably are, but not all of it.