Bosmont is a suburb of Johannesburg , South Africa . Bosmont is located in Region 4 . Bosmont is located in the West Rand of Johannesburg and nearly all of its residents are Coloured .
81-708: It was during the sixties that people of colour were forced to move from areas such as Albertsville, Vrededorp (Fietas) and other areas in and around the inner city to be settled in new designated areas such as Bosmont and Eldorado Park. The name of this suburb - BOSMONT is derived from the fact that the street names are named after South African trees of bushes (Bos in Afrikaans, one of the local languages) and Mont (short for Mountain). This has been contracted into Bosmont. Streets running in one direction are named after trees Eg Olywenhout Street. Streets running perpendicular to them are named after mountains Eg. Soutpansburg Str. As
162-526: 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. 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
243-521: A severe water shortage from 2015 to 2018. According to Oxfam , "in the face of an imminent water shortage, the city of Cape Town in South Africa successfully reduced its water use by more than half in three years, cutting it from 1.2bn litres per day in February 2015 to 516m litres per day in 2018." In 2021 Cape Town also experienced a violent turf war between rival taxi firms which led to
324-589: A Makassarese noble and scholar from Sulawesi , who resisted the company's rule in Southeast Asia, were exiled to South Africa. They were followed by slaves from other parts of Asia and Africa. Although it is not possible to accurately reconstruct the origins of slaves in the Cape, it has been estimated that roughly equal proportions of Malagasies , Indians , Insulindians (Southeast Asians), and continental Africans were imported, with other estimates showing that
405-499: A characteristic musical style. This includes a secular folk song type of Dutch origin, known as the nederlandslied . The language and musical style of this genre reflects the history of South African slavery , and the words and music often reflect sadness and other emotions related to the effect of enslavement. The nederlandslied shows the influence of the Arabesque style of singing and is unique in South Africa. The Silver Fez
486-619: A colony at the Cape of Good Hope (the Dutch Cape Colony ) as a resupply station for ships travelling between Europe and Asia, which developed into the city of Cape Town . The Dutch had also colonised the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia), which formed a part of the Dutch Empire for several centuries, and Dutch Malacca , which they held from 1641 until 1824. Islamic figures such as Sheikh Yusuf ,
567-903: A comic book. Frank Stuart Pepper wrote a comic strip called ‘Danny of the Dazzlers’ which started appearing in ‘The Champion’ in 1948 and continued until the magazine's demise in 1955. Dazzlers FC played under the TIFA (Transvaal Independent Football Association) which represented Coloured, Indian and African football clubs. Other activities can be found at the Bosmont Recreation Centre (Ward 82). Activities include Bosmont Clinic, Bosmont Alcoholics Anonymous, Cancer support, Children's afternoon free play, Church groups, Crime forum, Hall hire, Holiday programme, Karate, Modern dance, Senior citizens group, Table tennis, Youth Club Bosmont also has Chinese, Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Tamil sections in
648-812: A disproportionate share of 18th-century manumissions , who subsequently settled in Bo-Kaap , while those from elsewhere in Africa and Madagascar tended to work as farmhands and were not freed at the same rate. In the latter part of the 18th century, conversions to Islam of rural non-Asian slaves increased due to a Dutch colonial law that encouraged owners to educate their slaves in Christianity, and following their baptism , to allow them to buy their freedom. This consequently resulted in slave owners, fearful of losing their slaves, not enforcing Christianity amongst them. This, in turn, allowed Islamic proselytisers to convert
729-623: 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 Greater 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 Cape Supergroup strata on a basement of Tygerberg Formation rocks intruded by part of
810-699: A flood of immigration into South Africa. In 1895 the city's first public power station, the Graaff Electric Lighting Works , was opened. Conflicts between the Boer republics in the interior and the British colonial government resulted in the Second Boer War of 1899–1902. Britain's victory in this war led to the formation of a united South Africa. From 1891 to 1901, the city's population more than doubled from 67,000 to 171,000. As
891-539: 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. 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
SECTION 10
#1732791968998972-448: A number of satellite towns, suburbs and rural areas such as Atlantis , Bellville , Blouberg , Brackenfell , Durbanville , Goodwood , Gordon's Bay , Hout Bay , Khayelitsha , Kraaifontein , Kuilsrivier , Macassar , Melkbosstrand , Milnerton , Muizenberg , Noordhoek , Parow , Philadelphia , Simon's Town , Somerset West , and Strand among others. The Cape Peninsula is 52 km (30 mi) long from Mouille Point in
1053-878: A result of the Group Areas Act, the Coloured people were forcibly relocated from 1962 to 1974 since Vrededorp was declared a European township in 1936. The land for the suburb was proclaimed in June 1954. The township Bosmont and New Monteleo were joined together under the same name Bosmont in 1962. Bosmont was incorporated into the Johannesburg municipal area and developed by the Department of Community Development for Coloured People. By June 1962, residents started occupying homes in Bosmont. Bosmont used to enjoy and
1134-591: Is estimated that there are about 166,000 people in Cape Town who could be described as Cape Malay, and about 10,000 in Johannesburg . The Malay Quarter of Cape Town is found on Signal Hill and is called the Bo-Kaap . Many Cape Malay people also lived in District Six before they, among other South African people of diverse ethnicity, mainly Cape Coloureds , were forcefully removed from their homes by
1215-607: Is still enjoying considerable prestige as an elite suburb in the eyes of the Coloured community and houses there are sought after by those who can afford them. A significant difference between Bosmont and other predominantly Coloured areas is its large concentration of Cape Malay Coloureds (the largest Cape Malay culture in Johannesburg). Due to this, Islam has become a prominent feature in Bosmont and it also exists in complete peace and harmony with other faiths such as Christianity and Hinduism, however Christianity still remains as
1296-467: Is the " Holy Grail " of the musical subculture. The contest involves thousands of musicians and a wide variety of tunes, with all-male choirs from the Malay community competing for the prize. A 2009 documentary film directed by Lloyd Ross (founder of Shifty Records , ) called The Silver Fez , focuses on an underdog competing for the award. The annual Cape Town Minstrel Carnival (formerly known as
1377-532: 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. Bellville , Brackenfell , Durbanville , Kraaifontein , Goodwood and Parow are a few of the towns that make up
1458-457: 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. 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. Various Khoikhoi groups notably
1539-466: The Afrikaans sociolect spoken by subsequent generations. Adaptations of traditional foods such as bredie , bobotie , sosaties , and koeksisters are staples in many South African homes. Faldela Williams wrote three cookbooks, including The Cape Malay Cookbook , which became instrumental in preserving the cultural traditions of Cape Malay cuisine. The Cape Malay community developed
1620-541: The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 . The city became the capital of the newly formed Cape Colony , whose territory expanded very substantially through the 1800s, partially as a result of numerous wars with the amaXhosa on the colony's eastern frontier. In 1833 slavery was abolished in the colony freeing over 5500 slaves in the city, almost a third of the city's population at the time. The Convict Crisis of 1849, marked by substantial civil upheaval, bolstered
1701-718: The Cape Supergroup , of which parts of the Graafwater and Peninsula Formations remain, were uplifted between 280 and 21S million years ago, and were largely eroded away during the Mesozoic. The region was geologically stable during the Tertiary, which has led to slow denudation of the durable sandstones. Erosion rate and drainage has been influenced by fault lines and fractures, leaving remnant steep-sided massifs like Table Mountain surrounded by flatter slopes of deposits of
SECTION 20
#17327919689981782-523: The Cape Town area. The community played an important role in the history of Islam in South Africa , and its culinary culture is an integral part of South African cuisine . Malays helped to develop Afrikaans as a written language, initially using an Arabic script . "Malay" was legally a subcategory of the Coloured racial group during the apartheid era. The Dutch East India Company established
1863-514: The Dutch East Indies ) and other Asian countries, who lived at the Cape during Dutch and British rule. Although early members of the community were from the Dutch colonies of Southeast Asia, by the 1800s, the term "Malay" encompassed all practising Muslims at the Cape regardless of origin. Since they used Malay as a lingua franca and language of religious instruction, the community began to be referred to as Malays. Malays are concentrated in
1944-571: The Khoikhoi 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 Khoikhoi clans of the region in exchange for fresh meat and other essential travelling provisions. In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck and other employees of
2025-590: The Northern Suburbs 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, a coastal suburb north of Cape Town, and stands some 30m above sea level. Robben Island has been used as
2106-612: 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 Berg Wind , meaning "mountain wind", blows from the Karoo interior. Spring and summer generally feature
2187-635: 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
2268-885: 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 and Cape Malay communities. Under Van Riebeeck and his successors, as VOC commanders and later governors at
2349-463: The ra'king , gom-gom , and besem (also known as skiffelbas ). The ghomma has been traditionally used mostly for marching or rhythmic songs known as the ghommaliedjie , while the guitar is used for lyrical songs. Connections between Malaysians and South Africans improved when South Africa rejoined the international community . This was welcomed by the Malaysian government and many others in
2430-519: 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 give way to the dominance of Johannesburg and Pretoria in the 20th century. In 1910, Britain established the Union of South Africa , which unified the Cape Colony with the two defeated Boer Republics and the British colony of Natal . Cape Town became
2511-498: The Atlantic Ocean with significant precipitation and strong north-westerly winds. Winter months in the city average a maximum of 18 °C (64 °F) and minimum of 8.5 °C (47 °F). Winters are snow and frost free, except on Table Mountain and on other mountain peaks, where light accumulation of snow and frost can sometimes occur. Total annual rainfall in the city averages 515 mm (20.3 in) although in
Bosmont - Misplaced Pages Continue
2592-601: The Bosmont Cemetery. Distances to other towns close to Bosmont include: Cape Malays Cape Malays ( Afrikaans : Kaapse Maleiers , کاپز ملیس in Arabic script ) also known as Cape Muslims or Malays , are a Muslim community or ethnic group in South Africa . They are the descendants of enslaved and free Muslims from different parts of the world, specifically Indonesia (at that time known as
2673-687: The Bosmont library, various sports grounds (soccer, cricket, basketball and tennis) and the BFA Soccer Stadium. Bosmont has a number of soccer teams, including Aston Villa, Rangers, Universals and Dazzlers. Dazzlers Football Club is the most well-known and popular soccer team from Bosmont. Dazzlers was founded in the South African winter of 1949 in Albertville, Johannesburg, South Africa by Wilfred, ‘Willie’, Mooi and his cousin, Clifford Jousten. Dazzlers Football Club originated with
2754-462: The British ban on slave imports in 1808, reducing the need to communicate with newcomers. Asian and non-Asian Muslims interacted socially despite the initial linguistic differences and gradually blended into a single community. In 1836, the British colonial authorities estimated that the Cape Malay population at the time was around 5,000 out of a total population for the Cape of 130,486. "Malay"
2835-720: The Cape married into the Cape Malay community, with their children being classified as Cape Malay. Muslim men in the Cape started wearing the Turkish fez after the arrival of Abu Bakr Effendi , an imam sent from the Ottoman Empire at the request of the British Empire to teach Islam in the Cape Colony . At a time when most imams in the Cape were teaching the Shafi`i school of Islamic jurisprudence , Effendi
2916-522: The Cape was considered a " Coloured labour preference area", to the exclusion of " Bantus ", i.e. Black Africans. The implementation of this policy was widely opposed by trade unions, civil society and opposition parties. It is notable that this policy was not advocated for by any Coloured political group, and its implementation was a unilateral decision by the apartheid government. During the student-led Soweto Uprising of June 1976, school students from Langa , Gugulethu and Nyanga in Cape Town reacted to
2997-471: 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. With the Dutch Republic being transformed into Revolutionary France 's vassal Batavian Republic , Great Britain moved to take control of Dutch colonies, including
3078-517: The Coon Carnival) is a deep-rooted Cape Malay cultural event; it incorporates the comic song, or moppie (often also referred to as ghoema songs), as well as the nederlandslied . A barrel-shaped drum, called the ghoema (also spelled ghomma , or known as dhol ), is also closely associated with Cape Malay music, along with other percussion instruments such as the rebanna ( rebana ) and tamarien ( tambourine ). Stringed instruments include
3159-528: The Gorinaiqua lived on these lands for thousands of years. Khoikhoi communities were some of the wealthiest groups in Africa and their lands and cattles would go on to build colonial Cape Town and the rest of South Africa. Bartolomeu Dias . Dias, the first European to reach the area, arrived in 1488 and named it "Cape of Storms" ( Cabo das Tormentas ). It was later renamed by John II of Portugal as " Cape of Good Hope " ( Cabo da Boa Esperança ) because of
3240-561: The Muslim establishment in the colony, and the newly freed slaves subsequently adopted the Malay language used by the Asians. Thus, Malay was the initial lingua franca of Muslims, though they came from East Africa, Madagascar, and India as well as Indonesia, and established the moniker "Malay" for all Muslims at the Cape, irrespective of their geographic origins. By the 19th century, the term
3321-607: The Southeast Asian region. Non-governmental organisations, such as the Federation of Malaysia Writers' Associations, have since set on linking up with the diasporic Cape Malay community. Cape Town Cape Town is the legislative capital of South Africa . It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa . It is the country's second-largest city, after Johannesburg , and
Bosmont - Misplaced Pages Continue
3402-608: The Stellenbosch district. The Helderberg area of Greater 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
3483-583: 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 endemic ecoregions and several conservation areas. To the east of the Hottentots Holland mountains
3564-658: The Western Cape province. The official boundaries of the city proper extend between the City Bowl and the Atlantic Seaboard to the east and the Southern Suburbs to the south. The City of Cape Town , the metropolitan municipality that takes its name from the city covers the Greater Cape Town metropolitan area , known as the Cape Metropole, extending beyond the city proper itself to include
3645-458: The apartheid government and redistributed into townships on the Cape Flats . The founders of the Cape Malay community were the first to bring Islam to South Africa. The community's culture and traditions have also left an impact that is felt to this day. The Muslim community in Cape Town remains large and has expanded significantly since its inception. A dialect of Malay emerged among
3726-481: The balcony of Cape Town City Hall , hours after being released on 11 February 1990. His speech heralded the beginning of a new era for the country. The first democratic election , 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 . Cape Town has undergone significant changes in
3807-424: The best governed province and city in the country. Of South Africa's 257 municipalities, only 38 received a clean financial audit in 2022 from the Auditor-General . Of those, 21 were in the Western Cape. The city's economy has diversified, with growth in sectors such as finance, real estate, and tourism. The establishment of the City Centre Improvement District (CCID) has been particularly successful in revitalizing
3888-413: The city center, bringing businesses and people back into the area. This initiative has transformed public spaces such as Greenmarket Square , Company's Garden , and St George's Mall, attracting both locals and tourists. In 2014, Cape Town was named World Design Capital of the Year. Cape Town was voted the best tourist destination in Africa at the 2023 World Travel Awards in Dubai and continues to be
3969-509: The city centre. The legacy of Apartheid means Cape Town remains one of the most racially segregated cities in South Africa. Many Black South Africans continue to live in informal settlements with limited access to basic services such as healthcare, education, and sanitation. The unemployment rate remains high at 23% (though nearly 10 points lower than the nationwide average), particularly among historically disadvantaged groups, and economic opportunities are unevenly distributed. Cape Town faced
4050-399: 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 Batavian Republic allied with Britain's rival, France, during the Napoleonic Wars . Following the conclusion of the war Cape Town was permanently ceded to the United Kingdom in
4131-414: The deaths of 83 people. Since the 2010s, Cape Town and the wider Western Cape province have seen the rise of a small secessionist movement . Support for parties "which have formally adopted Cape independence" was around 5% in the 2021 municipal elections . 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
SECTION 50
#17327919689984212-406: 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. 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
4293-420: The enslaved community and later spread among colonial European residents of Cape Town between the 1780s and the 1930s. A unique dialect formed during this period from a substrate of Betawi spoken in Batavia (present-day Jakarta ), from which all major Dutch East India Company shipments took place, combined with Tamil , Hindustani , and Arabic influences. A significant number of this vocabulary has survived in
4374-607: 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. Cape Town has a warm summer Mediterranean climate ( Köppen : Csb ), with mild, moderately wet winters and dry, warm summers. Winter, which lasts from June to September, may see large cold fronts entering for limited periods from
4455-428: The eroded material overlaying the older rocks, 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
4536-434: 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 metropolitan area 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
4617-512: The great optimism engendered by the opening of a sea route to the Indian subcontinent and East Indies . 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 by the "Goringhaiqua" in Dutch approximate spelling) using cattle that were specially trained to respond to whistles and shouts. The Gorinaiqua were one of
4698-455: The largest in the Western Cape . 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 , and was similarly ranked number one by The Daily Telegraph in both 2016 and 2023. Located on
4779-579: The largest religion in Bosmont. Churches in Bosmont include: The majority of Muslims in Bosmont follow the Shafi Madhab. This too is unique in that the majority of Muslims in the Gauteng province of (who are mostly Indian) follow the Hanafi Madhab. Leaders in churches and mosques play a big role in uniting the community to fight crime, drugs, etc. Bosmont is home to four government schools (C.J. Botha High, R.W. Fick High, G.R. Harris Primary and Bosmont Primary) and two private schools (Bosmont Muslim School and St Barnabas High School). Recreational activities are
4860-407: The legislative capital of the Union, and later of the Republic of South Africa . By the time of the 1936 census , Johannesburg had overtaken Cape Town as the largest city in the country. In 1945 the expansion of the Cape Town foreshore was completed adding an additional 194 ha (480 acres) to the City Bowl area to the city centre. Prior to the mid-twentieth century, Cape Town was one of
4941-603: The majority of slaves originated in Madagascar . Many "Indiaanen" and "Mohammedaanen" Muslim political prisoners brought from Southeast Asia were imprisoned on Robben Island . Among these were Tuan Guru, first chief imam in South Africa. Sheikh Madura was exiled in the 1740s and died on Robben Island; his kramat (shrine) is still there today. Although the majority of slaves from Southeast Asia were already Muslims, along with many Indians, those from Madagascar and elsewhere in Africa were not. The slaves from Asia tended to work in semi-skilled and domestic roles, and they made up
SECTION 60
#17327919689985022-400: The most important tourist destination in the country. Cape Town has been named the best travel city in the world every year since 2013 in the Telegraph Travel Awards. The legacy of apartheid's spatial planning is still evident, with significant disparities between affluent areas and impoverished townships . 60% of the city's population live in townships and informal settlements far from
5103-638: The most racially integrated cities in South Africa. 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 Group Areas Act , which classified and segregated urban areas according to race. Formerly multi-racial suburbs of Cape Town were either purged of residents deemed unlawful by apartheid legislation, or demolished. The most infamous example of this in Cape Town
5184-430: 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 metropolitan limits . Many of the city's suburbs lie on the large plain called the Cape Flats , which extends over 50 km (30 mi) to
5265-399: The news of the protests against Bantu Education by organising gatherings and marches of their own. A number of school buildings were burnt down and the protest action was met with forceful resistance from the police. 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
5346-432: The north to Cape Point in the south, with an area of about 470 km (180 sq mi), and it displays more topographical variety than other similar sized areas in southern Africa, and consequently spectacular scenery. There are diverse low-nutrient soils, large rocky outcrops, scree slopes, a mainly rocky coastline with embayed beaches, and considerable local variation in climatic conditions. The sedimentary rocks of
5427-447: 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
5508-402: The once continuous Table Mountain Group sandstone cover from over the Cape Flats and False Bay, and leaving high residual mountain ridges. 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
5589-521: The product of a set of histories and communities as much as it is a definition of an ethnic group. Since many Cape Malay people have found their Muslim identity to be more salient than their "Malay" ancestry, in some contexts, they have been described as "Cape Malay", or "Malays", and others as "Cape Muslim" by people both inside and outside of the community. Cape Malay ancestry includes people from South and Southeast Asia, Madagascar, and Khoekhoe descent. Later, Muslim male " Passenger Indian " migrants to
5670-424: The push for self-governance in the Cape. With expansion came calls for greater independence from the UK, with the Cape attaining its own parliament (1854) and a locally accountable Prime Minister (1872). Suffrage was established according to the non-racial Cape Qualified Franchise . During the 1850s and 1860s, additional plant species were introduced from Australia by the British authorities. Notably rooikrans
5751-468: 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
5832-479: 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, Nelson Mandela made his first public speech since his imprisonment, from
5913-515: The slaves. There were also skilled Muslim labourers called Mardijkers from Southeast Asia who settled in the Bo-Kaap area of Cape Town. After the British took the Cape and began phasing out slavery in the first half of the 19th century, the newly freed non-Asian Muslim rural slaves moved to Cape Town, the only centre of Islamic faith in the region. The South and Southeast Asians constituted
5994-574: 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
6075-539: 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
6156-479: The years since Apartheid. Cape Town has experienced economic growth and development in the post-apartheid era. The city has become a major economic hub in South Africa, attracting international investment and tourism. The Democratic Alliance (DA), a liberal political party which came to power in Cape Town in 2006, has been credited with improving bureaucratic efficiency, public safety and fostering economic development. Opinion polls show that South Africans see it as
6237-697: 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 and eucalyptus was used to drain marshes. 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
6318-505: Was legally a subcategory of the Coloured race group during Apartheid , though the delineation of Malays and the remaining defined Coloured subgroups by government officials was often imprecise and subjective. The Cape Malays ( Afrikaans : Kaapse Maleiers , کاپز ملیس in Arabies script ) also known as Cape Muslims or simply Malays, are a Muslim community or ethnic group in South Africa. The Cape Malay identity can be considered
6399-739: Was the first teacher of the Hanafi school and established madrassas (Islamic schools) in Cape Town. Effendi, in common with many Turkish Muslims, wore a distinctive red fez. Many Cape Malay men continue to wear the red fez (in particular the Malay choirs ), although black was also common, and more recently, other colours have become popular. The last fez-maker in Cape Town closed shop in March 2022; 76-year-old Gosain Samsodien had been making fezzes in his home factory in Kensington for 25 years. It
6480-490: Was the suburb of District Six . After it was declared a whites-only area in 1965, all housing there was demolished and over 60,000 residents were forcibly removed. Many of these residents were relocated to the Cape Flats . The earliest of the Cape Flats forced removals saw the expulsion of Black South Africans to the Langa , Cape Town's first and oldest township, in line with the 1923 Native Urban Areas Act . Under apartheid,
6561-468: Was used to describe anyone at the Cape who was a practising Muslim, despite Afrikaans having overtaken Malay as the group's lingua franca . The community adopted Afrikaans as a lingua franca to ease communication between Asian and non-Asian Muslims (who had adopted the Dutch used by their masters), and because the utility of Malay and the Malayo-Portuguese language were diminished due to
#997002