Cape Town Data
Short facts about Cape Town's language, food, music, traditions and places, including its stranger details.
Did you know?Language & Slang
The Dictionary of South African English defines a tackie or takkie as a rubber-soled canvas shoe, and gives the origin as uncertain: possibly English tacky meaning sticky, possibly a Scottish dialect word meaning cheap and rubbishy.
South Africa · 1913 Read the story
Did you know?Music
David Kramer and Taliep Petersen's musical Ghoema ran at the Baxter Theatre from 11 November 2005 to 7 January 2006. It uses the drum as a way into the musical history of the Cape and the slave trade behind it.
Baxter Theatre · 2005 Read the story
Did you know?Food
Snoek is Thyrsites atun, a snake mackerel of southern waters. The Dictionary of South African English records it salted and dried at the Cape in 1797 and notes a horn sounded for the first catch.
Western Cape Read the story
Did you know?Language & Slang
The Dictionary of South African English labels lank as slang used especially by schoolchildren and young adults, meaning plenty of, or good, or simply very. The etymology is given as unknown.
South Africa · 1970 Read the story
Did you know?Transport
GroundUp reported in August 2023 that Western Cape drivers named daily targets of R800 to R1,200 to hand to the owner, with R700 to R800 going on petrol, and that a driver pays his gaartjie R150 to R250 a day.
Cape Town · 2023 Read the story
Did you know?Transport
In the 2013 National Household Travel Survey, minibus taxis were the main way to work for 25 percent of South African workers, against 7 percent for buses and 4 percent for trains. The sector gets no operating subsidy like rail and bus.
South Africa · 2013 Read the story
Did you know?Transport
The City of Cape Town and MyCiTi describe minibus taxis as unscheduled services, hailed from the kerbside, charging by distance, working out of large ranks that serve many routes. The Dictionary of South African English says the same: fixed routes, set fares, no timetable.
Cape Town Read the story
Did you know?Music
Mason notes that the melody strongly resembles "Jackpot", recorded by the saxophonist Zacks Nkosi around 1960, and reports that the Sunday Times wrote in 2006 that Nkosi and his son believed "Mannenberg" was taken from it. Mason himself rejects the copy claim.
1960 Read the story
Did you know?Music
Martin writes that the Genuines, led by Mac McKenzie with Hilton Schilder and often Robbie Jansen, named their music ghoema and recorded Mr Mac and the Genuines for Shifty Records in 1987. The Dictionary of South African English lists that 1980s style as a second sense of the word.
1987 Read the story
Did you know?Food
Waterblommetjie bredie is a meat stew made with Aponogeton distachyos, an edible Western Cape water plant. The Dictionary of South African English dates the word in English to 1950.
Western Cape Read the story
Did you know?Music
Mason breaks the tune into familiar local ingredients: a marabi groove, a beat close to ticky-draai or a lazy ghoema, saxophones with a langarm sound, and a jazz aesthetic holding it together.
1974 Read the story
Did you know?Language & Slang
The Dictionary of South African English gives howzit as a contraction of how is it, equivalent to hello but also carrying the enquiry how are you. Its citations run from 1975 to 1992.
South Africa · 1975 Read the story
Did you know?Places
Cecil John Rhodes bought Kirstenbosch in 1895 and left it to the government at his death in 1902. It was set aside as a national botanic garden in May 1913, with a grant of £1,000 a year.
Kirstenbosch · 1913 Read the story
Did you know?Food
The Dictionary of South African English derives sosatie from South African Dutch sasaatje and ultimately Javanese sesate, skewered meat. Its earliest Cape citation is from the Cape of Good Hope Literary Gazette in 1833.
Cape Town · 1833 Read the story
Did you know?Language & Slang
Mos is an Afrikaans-derived particle meaning after all, of course or you know, dropped into a sentence for emphasis. The Dictionary of South African English traces it to West Flemish mos and cites it in English from 1900.
South Africa · 1900 Read the story
Did you know?Music
Mason reports that after the record took off, Vally admitted he lacked the financial muscle to distribute it nationally and did a deal with Gallo Records. Within seven months of release, 43,000 copies had been sold in South Africa.
1974 Read the story
Did you know?Language & Slang
The Dictionary of South African English defines taxi in its South African sense as a light vehicle, typically a sixteen-seater minibus, carrying passengers on fixed routes for set fares and not running to a timetable.
South Africa Read the story
Did you know?Language & Slang
The Dictionary of South African English quotes a 1972 Star piece saying a conversation could be carried on with only four words, among them shame and is it. Shame expresses sympathy or fondness; is it is calqued on the Afrikaans is dit.
South Africa · 1972 Read the story
Did you know?Places
South African History Online dates the planning of Manenberg to November 1964 and its establishment to 1966. Between 1966 and 1970, 5,621 dwellings were built there for a population of 33,922.
Manenberg · 1966 Read the story
Did you know?Language & Slang
In South African English, "just now" means after a while and "now-now" means in a moment, or a moment ago. The Dictionary of South African English records both, and both are national usage.
South Africa Read the story
Did you know?Food
Denningvleis is slow cooked lamb or mutton with black pepper and tamarind. The Dictionary of South African English derives denning from Malay dendeng and vleis from Afrikaans, and its earliest citation is 1944.
Cape Town · 1944 Read the story
Did you know?Language & Slang
"Robot" is standard South African English for a traffic light, recorded in the Dictionary of South African English. It is used nationally, not just in Cape Town.
South Africa Read the story
Did you know?Music
Denis-Constant Martin describes the goema as a single-headed wooden drum assembled from staves held by metal hoops, made in a wine-making country from materials enslaved people could get. Kirby described it in 1939 as a small cask with a skin nailed over one end.
Cape Town Read the story
Did you know?Language & Slang
The Dictionary of South African English derives bru from the Afrikaans broer and bra from English brother, explaining the bl- variants of bra by the regular shift of r to l when English words are used in Nguni languages.
South Africa · 1956 Read the story
Did you know?Food
The Dictionary of South African English quotes a traveller's account of 1815 saying that breedi meant spinach in the Madagascar tongue and that the word was brought to the Cape by enslaved people. It also offers a possible Portuguese root.
Cape Town · 1815 Read the story
Did you know?Language & Slang
"Sho't left" is minibus taxi language for pull over here. South African Tourism borrowed it in 2004 for a domestic travel campaign. It is national usage, not a Cape Town speciality.
South Africa Read the story
Did you know?Music
Mason argues that Basil Coetzee and Robbie Jansen turned a 1974 hit into an anthem by putting it at the centre of rallies and benefit concerts through the 1980s, including the youth festival at the national launch of the UDF in August 1983.
Cape Town · 1983 Read the story
Did you know?Language & Slang
From the Dutch and Afrikaans kwaad, meaning bad or angry, kwaai described a fierce animal or a cross person. The Dictionary of South African English records an approving sense from 1974, and both senses are current.
Cape Flats Read the story
Did you know?Language & Slang
Jol means a party or a good time. The Dictionary of South African English derives it from Afrikaans and says the South African English pronunciation reflects either the Afrikaans accent of working-class Cape Coloured communities or an Englished form.
Cape Town · 1957 Read the story
Did you know?Language & Slang
The Dictionary of South African English gives two senses for Zola Budd: a police vehicle, especially a slow one, cited from 1985, and a minibus taxi, cited from 1987, named for the speed of the runner.
South Africa · 1985 Read the story
Did you know?Places
Writing in the Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry in 2025, Cullen Goldblatt says Mother City was a coining of Cape Town's first marketing board, part of an early twentieth-century invention of a new white national identity.
Cape Town Read the story
Did you know?Traditions
Martin records that the Green Point Track was closed to the troupes in 1968 after Green Point was declared white, that marches in central Cape Town were banned in 1976 under the Riotous Assemblies Act, and that the 2 January parades were suspended from 1977 until 1989.
Cape Town · 1977 Read the story
Did you know?Language & Slang
The Dictionary of South African English gives eish as an interjection covering displeasure, surprise, wonder, resignation and outrage, derived from tsotsitaal, with the first English citation in the Sunday Independent in September 1998.
South Africa · 1998 Read the story
Did you know?Traditions
Visiting American minstrel companies brought blackface minstrelsy to Cape Town in 1862, and local performers adapted the style into what became the Kaapse Klopse. Which troupe came first is not settled.
Cape Town · 1862 Read the story
Did you know?Music
Radio would not play it and the big labels were not interested, so Rashid Vally played "Mannenberg" on speakers outside his Kohinoor record shop. Africa Is a Country reports that he sold 5,000 copies in the first week.
1974 Read the story
Did you know?Music
Goema is both a barrel-shaped hand drum and the Cape Town music built on its beat. The Dictionary of South African English traces the word probably to a dialectal Malay word related to gong.
Cape Town Read the story
Did you know?Food
The Dictionary of South African English calls bobotie a traditional dish probably of Malay origin and traces the word to the Malay bumbu, curry spices. The often repeated claim that the first recipe was printed in 1609 is not established.
Cape Town Read the story
Did you know?Language & Slang
The Dictionary of South African English derives china, meaning mate, from the Cockney rhyming slang china plate. South African citations run from 1972 to 2023.
South Africa · 1972 Read the story
Did you know?People
Brenda Nokuzola Fassie was born in Langa, Cape Town, on 3 November 1964. Her first recording, "Weekend Special" with Brenda and the Big Dudes, came out in 1983 and South African History Online calls it the fastest-selling record of its time.
Langa · 1964 Read the story
Did you know?Language & Slang
The Dictionary of South African English derives baie from the Malay banyak, piesang from pisang, blatjang from belachan and baadjie from baju. Their earliest South African citations run from 1786 to 1890.
Cape Town Read the story
Did you know?History
District Six was declared a whites-only area under the Group Areas Act on 11 February 1966. Over 60,000 people were removed to the Cape Flats and the buildings were bulldozed.
District Six · 1966 Read the story
Did you know?Language & Slang
The Dictionary of South African English gives eina as Afrikaans, perhaps from Khoikhoi interjections of pain and surprise, or from a Nama interjection. The first English citation is 1913.
South Africa · 1913 Read the story
Did you know?Food
South African History Online notes that Malay at the Cape covered people from well beyond the Malay peninsula. In the Daily Maverick, the writer Rustum Kozain says he learned as a child that Cape Malay was an apartheid term and that Muslim was the identity that counted.
Cape Town Read the story
Did you know?Nature
The south-easter that scours Cape Town in summer is called the Cape Doctor. The Dictionary of South African English records the name from 1861, from a belief that it swept away disease.
Cape Town · 1861 Read the story
Did you know?History
South African History Online dates the Noon Gun time signal to 1806. The guns were cast in 1794, fired first at the Castle, and moved to Lion Battery on Signal Hill, where the first shot was on 4 August 1902.
Signal Hill · 1806 Read the story
Did you know?History
South African History Online dates the Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners to 14 August 1875 in Paarl, founded by S.J. du Toit and others, and records that members had to be professing Christians. Its newspaper, Die Afrikaanse Patriot, began on 15 January 1876.
Western Cape · 1875 Read the story
Did you know?Food
In modern Cape usage the koesister is spiced and rolled in coconut and the koeksister is plaited and syrup-soaked. The Dictionary of South African English lists koesister among the spelling variants under koeksister.
Bo-Kaap Read the story
Did you know?Traditions
The troupes are the Kaapse Klopse. The City of Cape Town calls the event the Cape Town Street Parade, or Tweede Nuwe Jaar Parade. The older name, built on a racial slur, is now widely considered offensive.
Cape Town Read the story
Did you know?Traditions
Cape Town's Second New Year falls on 2 January. The tradition ties it to the one day off enslaved people at the Cape were given, once New Year's Day, which belonged to their owners, was over.
Cape Town Read the story
Did you know?Places
The usual explanation for the Bo-Kaap's colours is that rented houses had to be white, and owners painted them when they could finally buy. It is widely repeated but thinly evidenced.
Bo-Kaap · 1760 Read the story
Did you know?Language & Slang
The Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures says Afrikaans arose from the colloquial Cape Dutch of Dutch settlers under the influence of Khoekhoe, South African Portuguese Creole and South African Malay. How exactly it happened is still argued about.
Cape Town Read the story
Did you know?Language & Slang
Lekker is Afrikaans and Dutch for delicious, and it now covers anything good. The Dictionary of South African English dates its first English citation to 1847, about hippo hoof.
South Africa · 1847 Read the story
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