Cape Town

Cape Town Kaapstad ( Afrikaans ) iKapa (Xhosa)
Central Business District
Cape Town Show map of Africa
Coordinates: 33°55′31″S 18°25′26″E / 33.92528°S 18.42389°E / -33.92528; 18.42389
US$121 billion[6]
GMP per capita (2011)	US$19,656[7]
Website	capetown.gov.za

Cape Town^[8][9] is South Africa's oldest city. It serves as the country's legislative capital, being the seat of the South African Parliament.^[10] It is the country's second-largest city (after Johannesburg) and the largest in the Western Cape.^[11] The city is part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality.

The city is known for its harbour, its natural setting in the Cape Floristic Region, and for landmarks such as Table Mountain and Cape Point. In 2014, Cape Town was named the best place in the world to visit by The New York Times^[12] and similarly by The Daily Telegraph in 2016.^[13]

Located on the shore of Table Bay, the City Bowl area of Cape Town is the oldest urban area in the Western Cape, with a significant cultural heritage. It was founded by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) as a supply station for Dutch ships sailing to East Africa, India, and the Far East. Jan van Riebeeck's arrival on 6 April 1652 established the VOC Cape Colony, the first permanent European settlement in South Africa. Cape Town outgrew its original purpose as the first European outpost at the Castle of Good Hope, becoming the economic and cultural hub of the Cape Colony. Until the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and the development of Johannesburg, Cape Town was the largest city in southern Africa.

The city has a long coastline on the Atlantic Ocean, which includes False Bay, and extends to the Hottentots Holland mountains to the east. The Table Mountain National Park is within the city boundaries and there are several other nature reserves and marine-protected areas within, and adjacent to, the city, protecting the diverse terrestrial and marine natural environment.

History

Early period

The earliest known remnants of human occupation in the region were found at Peers Cave in Fish Hoek and have been dated to between 15,000 and 12,000 years old.^[14]

Little is known of the history of the region's first residents, since there is no written history from the area before it was first mentioned by

.

In 1497, Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama recorded a sighting of the Cape of Good Hope.

In 1510, at the Battle of Salt River, the Portuguese admiral Francisco de Almeida and sixty-four of his men were killed and his party was defeated^[15] by the !Uriǁ’aekua ("Goringhaiqua" in Dutch approximate spelling) using specially trained cattle. The !Uriǁ’aekua were one of the so-called Khoekhoe clans who inhabited the area.

In the late 16th century French, Danish, Dutch and English, but mainly Portuguese, ships regularly continued to stop over in Table Bay en route to the Indies. They traded tobacco, copper, and iron with the Khoekhoe clans of the region in exchange for fresh meat and other essential travelling provisions.

Dutch period

In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck and other employees of the United East India Company (Dutch: Verenigde Oost-indische Compagnie, VOC) were sent to the Cape Colony to establish a way-station for ships travelling to the Dutch East Indies, and the Fort de Goede Hoop (later replaced by the Castle of Good Hope). The settlement grew slowly during this period, as it was hard to find adequate labour. This labour shortage prompted the local authorities to import enslaved people from Indonesia and Madagascar. Many of these people are ancestors of modern-day Cape Coloured communities.^[16][17]

Under Van Riebeeck and his successors, as VOC commanders and later governors at the Cape, a wide range of agricultural plants were introduced to the Cape. Some of these, including grapes, cereals, ground nuts, potatoes, apples and citrus, had a large and lasting influence on the societies and economies of the region.^[18]

British period

With the

, Great Britain moved to take control of Dutch colonies, including the colonial possessions of the VOC.

Britain captured Cape Town in 1795, but it was returned to the Dutch by treaty in 1803. British forces occupied the Cape again in 1806 following the Battle of Blaauwberg when the successor state to the Batavian Republic, the Kingdom of Holland, allied with France during the Napoleonic Wars.

In the

During the 1850s and 1860s, additional plant species were introduced from Australia by the British authorities. Notably rooikrans was introduced to stabilise the sand of the Cape Flats to allow for a road connecting the peninsula with the rest of the African continent^[21] and eucalyptus was used to drain marshes.^[22]

In 1859 the first railway line was built by the Cape Government Railways and a system of railways rapidly expanded in the 1870s. The discovery of diamonds in Griqualand West in 1867, and the Witwatersrand Gold Rush in 1886, prompted a flood of immigration into South Africa.^[23] In 1895 the city's first public power station, the Graaff Electric Lighting Works, was opened.

Conflicts between the

As the 19th century came to an end, the economic and political dominance of Cape Town in the Southern Africa region during the 19th century started to gave way to the dominance of Johannesburg and Pretoria in the 20th century.[25]

South African period

In 1910, Britain established the

.

By the time of the

, Johannesburg had overtaken Cape Town as the largest city in the country.

Apartheid era

Prior to the mid-twentieth century, Cape Town was one of the most racially integrated cities in South Africa.[27]^[28] In the 1948 national elections, the National Party won on a platform of apartheid (racial segregation) under the slogan of "swart gevaar" (Afrikaans for "black danger"). This led to the erosion and eventual abolition of the Cape's multiracial franchise.

In 1950, the apartheid government first introduced the

.

The earliest of the Cape Flats forced removals saw the expulsion of Black South Africans to the

Langa

is the oldest township in Cape Town and the scene of much resistance against apartheid. Its origins go back to the 19th century.

Under apartheid, the Cape was considered a "

Cape Town has been home to many leaders of the anti-apartheid movement. In Table Bay, 10 km (6 mi) from the city is Robben Island. This penitentiary island was the site of a maximum security prison where many famous apartheird-era political prisoners served long prison sentences. Famous prisoners include activist, lawyer and future president Nelson Mandela who served 18 of his 27 years of imprisonment on the island, as well as two other future presidents, Kgalema Motlanthe and Jacob Zuma.

In one of the most famous moments marking the end of apartheid,

, was held four years later, on 27 April 1994.

Nobel Square in the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront features statues of South Africa's four Nobel Peace Prize winners: Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, F. W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela.

Post-apartheid era

Cape Town faced a severe water shortage from 2015 to 2018.^[33]

Since the 2010s, Cape Town and the wider Western Cape province have seen the rise of a small secessionist movement.^[34] Support for parties "which have formally adopted Cape independence" was around 5% in the 2021 municipal elections.^[35]

Geography and the natural environment

Cape Town is located at latitude 33.55° S (approximately the same as Sydney and Buenos Aires and equivalent to Casablanca and Los Angeles in the northern hemisphere) and longitude 18.25° E.

Table Mountain, with its near vertical cliffs and flat-topped summit over 1,000 m (3,300 ft) high, and with Devil's Peak and Lion's Head on either side, together form a dramatic mountainous backdrop enclosing the central area of Cape Town, the so-called City Bowl. A thin strip of cloud, known colloquially as the "tablecloth" ("Karos" in Afrikaans), sometimes forms on top of the mountain. To the immediate south of the city, the Cape Peninsula is a scenic mountainous spine jutting 40 km (25 mi) southward into the Atlantic Ocean and terminating at Cape Point.

There are over 70 peaks above 300 m (980 ft) within Cape Town's official city limits. Many of the city's suburbs lie on the large plain called the Cape Flats, which extends over 50 km (30 mi) to the east and joins the peninsula to the mainland. The Cape Town region is characterised by an extensive coastline, rugged mountain ranges, coastal plains and inland valleys.

Extent

The extent of Cape Town has varied considerably over time. It originated as a small settlement at the foot of Table Mountain and has grown beyond its city limits as a metropolitan area to encompass the entire Cape Peninsula to the south, the Cape Flats, the Helderberg basin and part of the Steenbras catchment area to the east, and the Tygerberg hills, Blouberg and other areas to the north. Robben Island in Table Bay is also part of Cape Town. It is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and False Bay to the south. To the north and east, the extent is demarcated by boundaries of neighbouring municipalities within the Western Cape province.

The

There are two internationally notable landmarks, Table Mountain and Cape Point, at opposite ends of the Peninsula Mountain Chain, with the Cape Flats and False Bay to the east and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The landscape is dominated by sandstone plateaux and ridges, which generally drop steeply at their margins to the surrounding debris slopes, interrupted by a major gap at the Fish Hoek–Noordhoek valley. In the south much of the area is a low sandstone plateau with sand dunes. Maximum altitude is 1113 m on Table Mountain.^[37] The Cape Flats (Afrikaans: Kaapse Vlakte) is a flat, low-lying, sandy area, area to the east the Cape Peninsula, and west of the Helderberg much of which was wetland and dunes within recent history. To the north are the Tygerberg hills and the Stellenbosch district.

The Helderberg area of Cape Town, previously known as the "Hottentots-Holland" area, is mostly residential, but also a wine-producing area east of the Cape Flats, west of the Hottentots Holland mountain range and south of the Helderberg mountain, from which it gets its current name. The Helderberg consists of the previous municipalities of Somerset West, Strand, Gordons Bay and a few other towns. Industry and commerce is largely in service of the area. After the Cape Peninsula, Helderberg is the next most mountainous part of Cape Town, bordered to the north and east by the highest peaks in the region along the watershed of the Helderberg and Hottentots Holland Mountains, which are part of the Cape Fold Belt with

strata on a basement of Tygerberg Formation rocks intruded by part of the Stellenbosch granite pluton. The region includes the entire catchment of the Lourens and Sir Lowry's rivers, separated by the Schapenberg hill, and a small part of the catchment of the Eerste River to the west. The Helderberg is ecologically highly diverse, rivaling the Cape Peninsula, and has its own enndemic ecoregions and several conservation areas.

To the east of the Hottentots Holland mountains is the valley of the Steenbras River, in which the Steenbras Dam was built as a water supply for Cape Town. The dam has been supplemented by several other dams around the western Cape, some of them considerably larger. This is almost entirely a conservation area, of high biodiversity. Tygerberg hills, Blouberg hill, Durbanville are a few of the suburbs that make up the northern areas of Cape Town. In current popular culture these areas are often referred to as being beyond the "boerewors curtain," a play on the term "iron curtain."

UNESCO declared Robben Island in the Western Cape a World Heritage Site in 1999. Robben Island is located in Table Bay, some 6 km (3.7 mi) west of Bloubergstrand in Cape Town, and stands some 30m above sea level. Robben Island has been used as a prison where people were isolated, banished, and exiled for nearly 400 years. It was also used as a leper colony, a post office, a grazing ground, a mental hospital, and an outpost.^[38]

Geology

The Cape Peninsula is a rocky and mountainous peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the continent. At its tip is Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. The peninsula forms the west side of False Bay and the Cape Flats. On the east side are the Helderberg and Hottentots Holland mountains. The three main rock formations are the late-Precambrian Malmebury group (sedimentary and metamorphic rock), the Cape Granite suit, comprising the huge Peninsula, Kuilsrivier-Helderberg, and Stellenbosch batholiths, that were intruded into the Malmesbury Group about 630 million years ago, and the Table Mountain group sandstones that were deposited on the eroded surface of the granite and Malmesbury series basement about 450 million years ago.

The sand, silt and mud deposits were lithified by pressure and then folded during the Cape Orogeny to form the Cape Fold Belt, which extends in an arc along the western and southern coasts. The present landscape is due to prolonged erosion having carved out deep valleys, removing parts of the once continuous Table Mountain Group sandstone cover from over the Cape Flats and False Bay, and leaving high residual mountain ridges.^[39]

At times the sea covered the Cape Flats and Noordhoek valley and the Cape Peninsula was then a group of islands. During glacial periods the sea level dropped to expose the bottom of False Bay to weathering and erosion, with the last major regression leaving the entire bottom of False Bay exposed. During this period an extensive system of dunes was formed on the sandy floor of False Bay. At this time the drainage outlets lay between Rocky Bank Cape Point to the west, and between Rocky Bank and Hangklip Ridge to the east, with the watershed roughly along the line of the contact zone east of Seal Island and Whittle Rock.^{[39][40]: Ch2}

Climate

Cape Town has a warm Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csb),^[41][42][43] with mild, moderately wet winters and dry, warm summers. Winter, which lasts from the beginning of June to the end of August, may see large cold fronts entering for limited periods from the Atlantic Ocean with significant

Total annual rainfall in the city averages 515 mm (20.3 in) although in the Southern Suburbs, close to the mountains, rainfall is significantly higher and averages closer to 1,000 mm (39.4 in).

Summer, which lasts from December to March, is warm and dry with an average maximum of 26 °C (79 °F) and minimum of 16 °C (61 °F). The region can get uncomfortably hot when the

Water temperatures range greatly, between 10 °C (50 °F) on the Atlantic Seaboard, to over 22 °C (72 °F) in False Bay. Average annual ocean surface temperatures are between 13 °C (55 °F) on the Atlantic Seaboard (similar to Californian waters, such as San Francisco or Big Sur), and 17 °C (63 °F) in False Bay (similar to Northern Mediterranean temperatures, such as Nice or Monte Carlo).

Unlike other parts of the country the city does not have many thunderstorms, and most of those that do occur, happen around October to December and March to April.

Climate change

A 2019 paper published in PLOS One estimated that under Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5, a "moderate" scenario of climate change where global warming reaches ~2.5–3 °C (4.5–5.4 °F) by 2100, the climate of Cape Town in the year 2050 would most closely resemble the current climate of Perth in Australia. The annual temperature would increase by 1.1 °C (2.0 °F), and the temperature of the coldest month by 0.3 °C (0.54 °F), while the temperature of the warmest month would be 2.3 °C (4.1 °F) higher.^[48][49] According to Climate Action Tracker, the current warming trajectory appears consistent with 2.7 °C (4.9 °F), which closely matches RCP 4.5.^[50]

Moreover, according to the 2022 IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, Cape Town is one of 12 major African cities (Abidjan, Alexandria, Algiers, Cape Town, Casablanca, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Durban, Lagos, Lomé, Luanda and Maputo) which would be the most severely affected by future sea level rise. It estimates that they would collectively sustain cumulative damages of USD 65 billion under RCP 4.5 and USD 86.5 billion for the high-emission scenario RCP 8.5 by the year 2050. Additionally, RCP 8.5 combined with the hypothetical impact from marine ice sheet instability at high levels of warming would involve up to 137.5 billion USD in damages, while the additional accounting for the "low-probability, high-damage events" may increase aggregate risks to USD 187 billion for the "moderate" RCP4.5, USD 206 billion for RCP8.5 and USD 397 billion under the high-end ice sheet instability scenario.^[51] Since sea level rise would continue for about 10,000 years under every scenario of climate change, future costs of sea level rise would only increase, especially without adaptation measures.^[52]

Hydrology

Sea surface temperatures

Cape Town's coastal water ranges from cold to mild, and the difference between the two sides of the peninsula can be dramatic. While the Atlantic Seaboard averages annual sea surface temperatures around 13 °C (55 °F), the

Benguela current

which originates off the Cape Peninsula, while the water at False Bay beaches may occasionally be warmer by up to 10 °C (18 °F) at the same time in summer.

In summer False Bay is thermally stratified, with a vertical temperature variation of 5 to 9˚C between the warmer surface water and cooler depths below 50 m, while in winter the water column is at nearly constant temperature at all depths. The development of a thermocline is strongest around late December and peaks in late summer to early autumn.^[54]: 8 In summer the south easterly winds generate a zone of upwelling near Cape Hangklip, where surface water temperatures can be 6 to 7 °C colder than the surrounding areas, and bottom temperatures below 12 °C.^[54]: 10

In the summer to early autumn (January–March), cold water upwelling near Cape Hangklip causes a strong surface temperature gradient between the south-western and north-eastern corners of the bay. In winter the surface temperature tends to be much the same everywhere. In the northern sector surface temperature varies a bit more (13 to 22 °C) than in the south (14 to 20 °C) during the year.^[53]

Surface temperature variation from year to year is linked to the El Niño–Southern Oscillation. During El Niño years the South Atlantic high is shifted, reducing the south-easterly winds, so upwelling and evaporative cooling are reduced and sea surface temperatures throughout the bay are warmer, while in La Niña years there is more wind and upwelling and consequently lower temperatures. Surface water heating during El Niño increases vertical stratification. The relationship is not linear.^[53] Occasionally eddies from the Agulhas current will bring warmer water and vagrant sea life carried from the south and east coasts into False Bay.

Flora and fauna

Located in a Conservation International biodiversity hotspot as well as the unique Cape Floristic Region, the city of Cape Town has one of the highest levels of biodiversity of any equivalent area in the world.^[55][56] These protected areas are a World Heritage Site, and an estimated 2,200 species of plants are confined to Table Mountain – more than exist in the whole of the United Kingdom which has 1200 plant species and 67 endemic plant species.^[57][58][59] Many of these species, including a great many types of proteas, are endemic to the mountain and can be found nowhere else.^[60]

It is home to a total of 19 different vegetation types, of which several are endemic to the city and occur nowhere else in the world.^[61] It is also the only habitat of hundreds of endemic species,^[62] and hundreds of others which are severely restricted or threatened. This enormous species diversity is mainly because the city is uniquely located at the convergence point of several different soil types and micro-climates.^[63][64]

Table Mountain has an unusually rich biodiversity. Its vegetation consists predominantly of several different types of the unique and rich Cape

occur in smaller portions on the mountain.

Unfortunately, rapid

Tiny remnant populations of

Cape Town reached first place in the 2019 iNaturalist City Nature Challenge in two out of the three categories: Most Observations, and Most Species. This was the first entry by Capetonians in this annual competition to observe and record the local biodiversity over a four-day long weekend during what is considered the worst time of the year for local observations.[68] A worldwide survey suggested that the extinction rate of endemic plants from the City of Cape Town is one of the highest in the world, at roughly three per year since 1900 – partly a consequence of the very small and localised habitats and high endemicity.^[69]

Government

This article is part of a series on the
Politics of the Western Cape
Constitution List of Acts of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament
Executive Premier The Hon Alan Winde MMP Provincial Cabinet
Provincial Parliament Western Cape Parliament The Sixth Provincial Parliament Speaker Masizole Mnqasela MMP Deputy Speaker Beverley Schäfer MMP Chief Whip of the Majority Party Mireille Wenger MMP Leader of the Opposition Cameron Dugmore MMP Chief Whip of the Official Opposition Pat Lekker MMP Political Parties DA ANC EFF GOOD ACDP FF+ ALJAMA
Judiciary Western Cape Division
Administrative divisions List of municipalities in the Western Cape
Elections Provincial: 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019 Municipal: 2000 2006 2011 2016 2021
Related topics Cape Independence Cape Liberal Tradition
Other provinces Politics of the Eastern Cape Politics of the Free State Politics of Gauteng Politics of KwaZulu-Natal Politics of Limpopo Politics of Mpumalanga Politics of the Northern Cape Politics of North West Politics of the Western Cape
Other countries
v t e

Cape Town is governed by a 231-member city council elected in a system of

In the 2021 Municipal Elections, the Democratic Alliance (DA) kept its majority, this time diminished, taking 136 seats. The African National Congress lost substantially, receiving 43 of the seats.^[72][73] The Democratic Alliance candidate for the Cape Town mayoralty, Geordin Hill-Lewis was elected mayor.^[74]

• 

  The Old Cape Town City Hall as seen from the Grand Parade in front of the building.

• 

  The Cape Town Civic Centre, the central offices of the City of Cape Town.

• 

  The Western Cape Provincial Parliament

• 

  South Africa's national parliament

  building is located in Cape Town.

International relations

Cape Town has nineteen active sister city agreements^[75]

2022 invasion of Ukraine

The City of Cape Town has expressed explicit support for Ukraine during the

Demographics

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1658 360 —     1731 3,157 +3.02% 1836 20,000 +1.77% 1875 45,000 +2.10% 1891 67,000 +2.52% 1901 171,000 +9.82% 1936 344,223 +2.02% 1950 618,000 +4.27% 1955 705,000 +2.67% 1960 803,000 +2.64% 1965 945,000 +3.31%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1970 1,114,000 +3.35% 1975 1,339,000 +3.75% 1980 1,609,000 +3.74% 1985 1,933,000 +3.74% 1990 2,296,000 +3.50% 1996 2,565,018 +1.86% 2001 2,892,243 +2.43% 2007 3,497,097 +3.22% 2011 3,740,025 +1.69% 2018 3,776,001 +0.14%
Note: Census figures (1996–2011) cover figures after 1994 reflect the greater Cape Town metropolitan municipality reflecting post-1994 reforms. Sources: 1658–1904,[24] 1936,[79] 1950–1990,[80] 1996,[81] 2001, and 2011 Census;[82] 2007,[83] 2018 Census estimates.[84]

According to the

^: 54 Of those residents who were asked about their first language, 35.7% spoke Afrikaans, 29.8% spoke Xhosa and 28.4% spoke English. 24.8% of the population is under the age of 15, while 5.5% is 65 or older.^[85]: 64 The sex ratio is 96, meaning that there are slightly more women than men.^[85]: 55

Of those residents aged 20 or older, 1.8% have no schooling, 8.1% have some schooling but did not finish primary school, 4.6% finished primary school but have no secondary schooling, 38.9% have some secondary schooling but did not finish

^: 88

The total number of households grew from 653,085 in 1996 to 1,068,572 in 2011, which represents an increase of 63.6%.

In 2011 over 70% of cross provincial South African migrants coming into the Western Cape settled in Cape Town; 53.64% of South African migrants into the Western Cape came from the Eastern Cape and 20.95% came from Gauteng province.[88]

According to the 2016 City of Cape Town community survey, there were 4,004,793 people in the City of Cape Town metro. Out of this population, 42.6% identified as Black African, 39.9% identified as Coloured, 16.5% identified as White and 1.1% identified as Asian.^[89]

During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa, local media reported that increasing numbers of wealthy and middle-class South Africans have started moving from inland areas to coastal regions of the country, most notably Cape Town, in a phenomenon referred to as "semigration."^[90][91][92] Declining municipal services in the rest of the country and the South African energy crisis are other cited reasons for semigration.^[93]

The city's population is expected to grow by an additional 400,000 residents between 2020 and 2025 with 76% of those new residents falling into the low-income bracket earning less than R 13,000 a month.^[94]

Religion

In the 2015 General Household Survey 82.3% of respondents self identified as Christian, 8% as Muslim, 3.8% as following a traditional African religion and 3.1% as "nothing in particular."^[95]

Most

the construction of a temple with groundbreaking dates yet to be announced.

]

Crime

In recent years,^[

Economy

See also: Economy of the Western Cape

Top publicly traded companies in the Cape Town/Stellenbosch region for 2021 (ranked by market capitalisation) with Metropolitan and JSE ranks
Metro		corporation		JSE
1		Naspers		4
2		Capitec		14
3		Sanlam		20
4		Shoprite		24
5		Pepkor		30
6		Clicks		32
7		Woolworths		35
8		Remgro		37
Source: JSE top 40[109]

The city is

global financial crisis of 2007 the city's economic growth rate has mirrored South Africa's decline in growth whilst the population growth rate for the city has remained steady at around 2% a year.^[110] Around 80% of the city's economic activity is generated by the tertiary sector of the economy with the finance, retail, real-estate, food and beverage industries being the four largest contributors to the city's economic growth rate.^[110]

In 2008 the city was named as the most entrepreneurial city in South Africa, with the percentage of Capetonians pursuing business opportunities almost three times higher than the national average. Those aged between 18 and 64 were 190% more likely to pursue new business, whilst in Johannesburg, the same demographic group was only 60% more likely than the national average to pursue a new business.[112]

With the highest number of successful information technology companies in Africa, Cape Town is an important centre for the industry on the continent.^[113] This includes an increasing number of companies in the space industry.^[114] Growing at an annual rate of 8.5% and an estimated worth of R77 billion in 2010, nationwide the high tech industry in Cape Town is becoming increasingly important to the city's economy.^[113] A number of entrepreneurship initiatives and universities hosting technology startups such as Jumo, Yoco, Aerobotics, Luno, Rain telecommunication and The Sun Exchange are located in the city.^[115]

Skyscrapers in City Bowl

The city has the largest film industry in the Southern Hemisphere^[116] generating R5 billion (US$476.19 million) in revenue and providing an estimated 6,058 direct and 2,502 indirect jobs in 2013.^[117] Much of the industry is based out of the Cape Town Film Studios.

Major companies

The Naspers Centre is the headquarters of Naspers

, the largest listed company headquartered in Cape Town.

Most companies headquartered in the city are insurance companies, retail groups, publishers, design houses, fashion designers, shipping companies, petrochemical companies, architects and advertising agencies.

eTV, multinational mass media giant Naspers, and financial services giant Sanlam^[122] and Old Mutual Park.^[123]

Other notable companies include

GlaxoSmithKline, Levi Strauss & Co., Adidas, Bokomo Foods, Yoco and Nampak.^{[citation needed]} Amazon Web Services maintains one of its largest facilities in the world in Cape Town with the city serving as the Africa headquarters for its parent company Amazon.^[124][125]

Inequality

The city of Cape Town's Gini coefficient of 0.58^[126] is lower than South Africa's Gini coefficient of 0.7 making it more equal than the rest of the country or any other major South Africa city although still highly unequal by international standards.^[127][128] Between 2001 and 2010 the city's Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality, improved by dropping from 0.59 in 2007 to 0.57 in 2010^[129] only to increase to 0.58 by 2017.^[130]

Tourism

Clifton Beach

is one of Cape Town's most famous beaches

Table Mountain from the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden

African penguins at Boulders Penguin Colony

The Western Cape is a highly important tourist region in South Africa; the tourism industry accounts for 9.8% of the GDP of the province and employs 9.6% of the province's workforce. In 2010, over 1.5 million international tourists visited the area.

Hout Bay, for the views of the Atlantic Ocean and nearby mountains. It is possible to either drive or hike up Signal Hill for closer views of the City Bowl and Table Mountain.^[134]

Many tourists also visit Cape Town's beaches, which are popular with local residents.^[135] It is possible to visit several different beaches in the same day, each with a different setting and atmosphere. Both coasts are popular, although the beaches in affluent

Llandudno, with the route ending in Hout Bay, a diverse suburb with a fishing and recreational boating harbour near a small island with a breeding colony of African fur seals. This suburb is also accessible by road from the Constantia valley over the mountains to the northeast, and via the picturesque Chapman's Peak drive from the residential suburb Noordhoek in the Fish Hoek valley to the south-east.^[136] Boulders Beach near Simon's Town is known for its colony of African penguins.^[137]

The city has several notable cultural attractions. The

Cape fur seal colonies on Seal and Duiker Islands. Several companies offer tours of the Cape Flats, a region of mostly Coloured & Black townships.^[141]

The most popular areas for visitors to stay include Camps Bay,

skydiving, snorkelling and scuba diving, boat trips, game-fishing, hiking, mountain biking and rock climbing. Surfing is popular and the city hosts the Red Bull Big Wave Africa surfing competition every year, and there is some local and international recreational scuba tourism.^[144]

The City of Cape Town works closely with Cape Town Tourism to promote the city both locally and internationally. The primary focus of Cape Town Tourism is to represent Cape Town as a tourist destination.

Franschhoek are popular day trips from the city for sightseeing and wine tasting.^[149][150]

Infrastructure and services

Most goods are handled through the Port of Cape Town or

Koeberg nuclear power station providing energy for the Western Cape's needs.^[152]

Cape Town has four major commercial nodes, with Cape Town Central Business District containing the majority of job opportunities and office space.^[

Bellville/Tygervalley strip and Claremont

commercial nodes are well established and contain many offices and corporate headquarters.

Health

See also: List of hospitals in South Africa § Cape Metropole

Groote Schuur Hospital

• The Alexandra Hospital is a specialist mental health care hospital in Cape Town, it provides care for complex mental health issues and intellectual disability.^[153]
• Groote Schuur Hospital is a large, government-funded, teaching hospital situated on the slopes of Devil's Peak. It was founded in 1938 and is famous for being the institution where the first human-to-human heart transplant took place. Groote Schuur is the chief academic hospital of the University of Cape Town's medical school, providing tertiary care and instruction in all the major branches of medicine. The hospital underwent major extension in 1984 when two new wings were added.
• The Hottentots Holland Hospital, also known as Helderberg Hospital, is a district hospital for the Helderberg basin located in Somerset West, and also serves surrounding areas in the Overberg district.
• Vergelegen Medi-clinic – Private hospital in Somerset West

Education

University of Cape Town with the Devil's Peak

The Cape Town Campus of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, with Table Mountain

in the background

Public primary and secondary schools in Cape Town are run by the Western Cape Education Department. This provincial department is divided into seven districts; four of these are "Metropole" districts – Metropole Central, North, South, and East – which cover various areas of the city.^[154] There are also many private schools, both religious and secular. Cape Town has a well-developed higher system of public universities. Cape Town is served by three public universities: the University of Cape Town (UCT), the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). Stellenbosch University, while not based in the city itself, has its main campus and administrative section 50 kilometres from the City Bowl and has additional campuses, such as the Tygerberg Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Bellville Business Park within the city.

Both the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University are leading universities in South Africa. This is due in large part to substantial financial contributions made to these institutions by both the public and private sector. UCT is an English-language tuition institution. It has over 21,000 students and has an MBA programme that was ranked 51st by the Financial Times in 2006.^[155] It is also the top-ranked university in Africa, being the only African university to make the world's Top 200 university list at number 146.^[156] Since the African National Congress has become the country's ruling party, some restructuring of Western Cape universities has taken place and as such, traditionally non-white universities have seen increased financing, which has evidently benefitted the University of the Western Cape.^[157][158]

The Cape Peninsula University of Technology was formed on 1 January 2005, when two separate institutions –

SEDS, Students for the Exploration and Development of Space. This is the South African SEDS, and there are many SEDS branches in other countries, preparing enthusiastic students and young professionals for the growing Space industry.^{[citation needed]} As well as the Universities, there are also several colleges in and around Cape Town. Including the College of Cape Town, False Bay College and Northlink College. Many students use NSFAS funding to help pay for tertiary education at these TVET colleges.^[159] Cape Town has also become a popular study abroad destination for many international college students. Many study abroad providers

offer semester, summer, short-term, and internship programs in partnership with Cape Town universities as a chance for international students to gain intercultural understanding.

Water supply

See also: Western Cape Water Supply System

Water crisis of 2017 to 2018

Main article: Cape Town water crisis

Water crisis warning in Cape Town in 2008

The Cape Town water crisis of 2017 to 2018 was a period of severe water shortage in the Western Cape region, most notably affecting the City of Cape Town. While dam water levels had been declining since 2015, the Cape Town water crisis peaked during mid-2017 to mid-2018 when water levels hovered between 15 and 30 percent of total dam capacity.

In late 2017, there were first mentions of plans for "Day Zero", a shorthand reference for the day when the water level of the major dams supplying the city could fall below 13.5 percent.^{[160][161][162]} "Day Zero" would mark the start of Level 7 water restrictions, when municipal water supplies would be largely switched off and it was envisioned that residents could have to queue for their daily ration of water. If this had occurred, it would have made the City of Cape Town the first major city in the world to run out of water.^[163][164]

The city of Cape Town implemented significant water restrictions in a bid to curb water usage, and succeeded in reducing its daily water usage by more than half to around 500 million litres (130,000,000 US gal) per day in March 2018.^[165] The fall in water usage led the city to postpone its estimate for "Day Zero", and strong rains starting in June 2018 led to dam levels recovering.^[166] In September 2018, with dam levels close to 70 percent, the city began easing water restrictions, indicating that the worst of the water crisis was over.^[167] Good rains in 2020 effectively broke the drought and resulting water shortage when dam levels reached 95 percent.^[168] Concerns have been raised, however, that unsustainble demand and limited water supply could result in future drought events.^[169]

Transport

Air

Cape Town International Airport

Cape Town International Airport serves both domestic and international flights. It is the second-largest airport in South Africa and serves as a major gateway for travelers to the Cape region. Cape Town has regularly scheduled services to Southern Africa, East Africa, Mauritius, Middle East, Far East, Europe and the United States as well as eleven domestic destinations.^[170] Cape Town International Airport opened a brand new central terminal building that was developed to handle an expected increase in air traffic as tourism numbers increased in the lead-up to the tournament of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.^[171] Other renovations include several large new parking garages, a revamped domestic departure terminal, a new Bus Rapid Transit system station and a new double-decker road system. The airport's cargo facilities are also being expanded and several large empty lots are being developed into office space and hotels.

Cape Town is one of five internationally recognised

Central Business District^[174]

Sea

The Port of Cape Town

is a major transport node in southern Africa. In addition to moving freight it also serves as a major repair site for ships and oil rigs.

Cape Town has a long tradition as a port city. The Port of Cape Town, the city's main port, is in Table Bay directly to the north of the CBD. The port is a hub for ships in the southern Atlantic: it is located along one of the busiest shipping corridors in the world, and acts as a stopover point for goods en route to or from Latin America and Asia. It is also an entry point into the South African market.^[175] It is the second-busiest container port in South Africa after Durban. In 2004, it handled 3,161 ships and 9.2 million tonnes of cargo.^[176]

Simon's Town Harbour on the False Bay coast of the Cape Peninsula is the main operational base of the South African Navy.

Until the 1970s the city was served by the

St Helena Airport.^[178]

The cargo vessel M/V Helena, under AW Shipping Management, takes a limited number of passengers,[179] between Cape Town and St Helena and Ascension Island on its voyages.^[180] Multiple vessels also take passengers to and from Tristan da Cunha, inaccessible by aircraft, to and from Cape Town.^[181] In addition NSB Niederelbe Schiffahrtsgesellschaft [de] takes passengers on its cargo service to the Canary Islands and Hamburg, Germany.^[179]

Rail

Metrorail train leaving Kalk Bay

station