What's changed on the site lately, newest first. Usually the crime map, the district reports or a data page.
Pinned
A new hub gathers what makes Cape Town Cape Town: the language, the food, the music, the traditions and the places, with an explainer behind each theme. Every fact names the source it came from and links to it. Alongside it, the South African Music Graph connects musicians, songs, places and genres on one map.
Open Cape Town Explained →A new hub organises the site's data journalism by topic and by story: wildfires, water and the dams, load shedding, crime in numbers, the cost of living and how the city moves. Each story opens on its verdict, runs the updates in order and links to the live data behind it.
Open Data Stories →Official SAPS figures for April to June 2026, released on 28 August, are now live across all nine district crime reports, the district comparison page, the 116-ward crime map, and the Quarterly Safety Report.
Browse the reports →A new map of active fire detections across the Western Cape, drawn from NASA's FIRMS satellites and cross-checked against SABC news reports. Each hotspot is colour-coded by how recently it was seen, with plain-English context on what the signal means.
See the fire map →November 2026
The USD/ZAR rate as of 2 November 2026, refreshed daily from the Cape Town Data FX feed.
See FX rates →Markets, sport, music, and more happening in Cape Town.
See what’s on →Station-by-station rainfall for the 24 hours to 08:00 on 2 November 2026, from 103 SAWS stations.
See daily rainfall →The City of Cape Town's reading of 2 November 2026 puts the six major dams at 73.0% of capacity.
See dam levels →October 2026
In the latest article of our Water and the dams series we show that the six major dams ended the rainy season at 74.0 percent in the week of 19 October 2026, compared with 89.7 percent a year earlier, the lowest mid-October level since 2017. We explain how one storm in May did almost all of the filling, how each dam compares with last year and what this means for the summer.
Read the article →A profile of the singer-songwriter who grew up in Kommetjie, busked in Berlin, turned down the record labels after her 2014 TEDxBerlin performance and saw "She" shortlisted for an Oscar. Her journey in eleven stops, three songs to play in the page and her 2026 arena dates with Laufey and Olivia Dean. She is now also in the music quiz and on the music graph.
Read her story →A new explainer on the City's draft Short-Term Letting By-law and its 2026/27 rates policy, which can move homes that are open to short-term guests for more than half the year onto commercial rates from July 2027. A checker and a room-night calculator show whether your property is affected.
Read the explainer →A concert preview for Saturday 10 October 2026: pianist Kyle Shepherd, bassist Benjamin Jephta and drummer Marlon Witbooi play the music of Abdullah Ibrahim at the Baxter Concert Hall, four months after his death. What is planned, who is on stage, tickets, parking and the weekend's other Baxter productions.
Read the preview →A new analysis sets the 7 October Lion's Head robbery and the year's other incidents against the data that exists: SANParks' robbery counts, 45 years of rescue records and our hiking trails crime report. It ends with the practical guidance those sources support and the numbers to call.
Read the analysis →A new guide compares Woodstock, Observatory, Mowbray, Rosebank, Rondebosch, Newlands and Claremont using SAPS precinct crime figures for the year to March 2026, INRIX congestion data, 2026 school fees and current rents, with a map of the corridor.
Read the guide →September 2026
28 September 2026: reports from northern and western suburbs, a map of reported locations and official fault-reporting contacts. No confirmed full-restoration time.
Read the outage report →The brief, every two weeks
A free email every two weeks with safety updates, dam levels, rainfall and what's on.
Includes a free member account to save favourite guides and join the discussion.