The
Western Cape is a
province in the south west of
South Africa.
The capital is
Cape
Town
. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms
the Western Cape was part of the much larger (and now defunct)
Cape Province. Prior to the formation
of the
Union of South Africa
in 1910, it was called the
Cape Colony
(see the
History of Cape
Colony).
History since 1994
In 1994, after the inauguration of South Africa's first black
president,
Nelson Mandela, the Cape
Province was broken up into three provinces:
Western Cape,
Northern
Cape and
Eastern Cape (which
encompasses the former Xhosa homelands of
Transkei and
Ciskei).
However, the Western Cape set itself apart early in post-apartheid
South African history by being one of the two provinces to have
rejected an
ANC mandate
(the other being
KwaZulu-Natal) by
electing former South African Law and Order minister
Hernus Kriel (
NP) as the first premier of
the Western Cape. It would be dominated by the National Party, and
its
successor,
until the party's announced 2004 merger with the ANC, which brought
ex-premier
Ebrahim Rasool to
power.
Law and government
Western Cape provincial building, Cape
Town.
The
capital of the Western Cape is the City of Cape Town. The
Premier of the Western Cape is
Helen Zille while the Director-General
of the provincial administration is
Virginia Petersen.
The
Constitution of the
Western Cape was adopted in 1998 and is published in the
official languages of the province:
Afrikaans, English and
Xhosa.
The
Western Cape
Provincial Parliament is responsible for creating laws within
its responsibilities as set out by the
South African Constitution. Some
of the issues dealt with cover agriculture, education, environment,
health services, housing, language policies, tourism, trade, and
welfare. The Legislature is housed in Cape Town and has a total of
42 members. The Fourth Parliament was elected in the
election of 22 April
2009; 22 seats are held by the
Democratic Alliance, 14
by the
African National
Congress, 3 by the
Congress
of the People, 2 by the
Independent Democrats, and 1 by the
African Christian
Democratic Party.
Geography
The
Western Cape is bordered on the north by the Northern Cape, on the east by the Eastern Cape, on the south by the Indian Ocean
, and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean
. The
subantarctic dependency of the
Prince Edward Islands is included
within the province's administration.
The Breede
, Berg
and Olifants Rivers are major
rivers of the province. The capital is Cape Town and other major cities include Stellenbosch
, Worcester
, Paarl
, and
George
. The
Garden
Route and the
Overberg are popular
coastal tourism areas.
The Western Cape is exceptionally topographically diverse. Most of
the province falls within the
Cape Fold
Belt, a range of sandstone folded mountains of
Permian to
Carboniferous age that range in height from
1000m to 2300m. The valleys between ranges are generally very
fertile and contains alluvial loamy to clay soils. The far interior
forms part of the Karoo Basin and is generally arid and hilly with
a sharp
escarpment in the north. Coastal
areas range from sandy between capes, to rocky to steep and
mountainous in places.
The Western Cape is also the southernmost
region of the African continent with Cape Agulhas
as its southernmost point, only 3800km from the
Antarctic coastline.
The total land area is 129,370 km², about 10.6% of the country’s
total.
It
is roughly the size of England
or the US
state of Louisiana
.
Vegetation
is also extremely diverse, with one of the world's seven floral
kingdoms almost exclusively endemic to the province, namely the
Cape Floral
Kingdom
, most of which is covered by Fynbos
(Afrikaans:
Fine Bush). It is extremely rich in species diversity,
with more plant species occurring on Table Mountain
than the entire United Kingdom. It is
characterised by various types of shrubs, thousands of flowering
plant species and some small trees.
The arid interior is dominated by
Karoo
drought-resistant shrubbery. The West Coast and Little Karoo are
semi-arid regions and are typified by many
species of succulents and drought-resistant shrubs and acacia
trees. The
Garden Route is extremely
lush, with temperate rainforest (or
Afromontane Forest) covering
many areas adjacent to the coast and along the mountain ranges.
Typical species are hardwoods of exceptional height, such as
Yellowwood,
Stinkwood and
Ironwood
trees.
Municipalities
Map of the municipalities of the Western Cape
The Western Cape is made up of one
metropolitan
municipality, and five
district municipalities
subdivided into 24
local
municipalities.
Cities and towns
The population figures quoted only include urbanised areas:
Population 1,000,000++
Population 50,000+
Population 10,000+
Population 10,000
Climate
The
Western Cape is also diverse climatologically, with many distinct
micro- and macroclimates created by the varied topography and the
influence of both the Indian (warm water)
and Atlantic (cold water) oceans, thus climatic statistics can vary
greatly over short distances. Most of the province is
considered to have a
Mediterranean
climate with cool, wet winters and warm, dry summers. The
interior
Karoo has a
semi-arid climate with cold, frosty winters and
hot summers with occasional
thunderstorms. The
Garden Route and the
Overberg on the south coast have a maritime climate
with cool, moist winters and mild, moist summers.
Mossel Bay
in the Garden Route is considered to have the
second mildest climate worldwide after Hawaii
.
Thunderstorms are generally rare in the province, except in the
Karoo interior, with most precipitation being
of a frontal or
orographic nature.
Extremes of heat and cold are common inland, but rare near the
coast. Snow is a common winter occurrence on the higher lying
ground, however frost is relatively rare in coastal areas and many
of the heavily cultivated valleys.
The dependency of the
Prince
Edward Islands are subantarctic islands, which experience
year-round cool to cold temperatures with high precipitation and
little annual deviation on both accounts.
- Cape
Town Int'l Airport
averages: January maximum: 26°C (min: 16°C), July
maximum: 18°C (min: 7°C), annual rainfall: 515mm
- George
averages: January maximum: 25°C (min: 15°C), July
maximum: 19°C (min: 7°C), annual rainfall: 715mm
- Marion Island (Prince Edward
Group) averages: January maximum: 10°C (min: 5°C), July maximum:
6°C (min: 1°C), annual rainfall: 2401mm
Economy
The Western Cape's total
GDP is the
third-highest contribution to the country’s total, at 14.6%. The
largest industry is the clothing and textile industry, which
employs over 170,000 people.
The textile industry is presently declining
in importance, due to competition with cheaper Eastern producers,
such as China
.
High-tech industries, international call centres, fashion design,
advertising and TV production are niche industries rapidly gaining
in importance. The province also has a substantially lower
unemployment rate than the other provinces; 17.1% of the working
population is unemployed.
The province has recently grown a massive tourism industry, with
the majority of international tourist arrivals visiting the
province, with Cape Town, Garden Route and the Winelands being
popular tourist destinations. There were 1,535,903 international
arrivals in 2004 with continued growth annually. Domestic tourism
is also on the rise, as low-cost air carriers such as
Kulula and
1Time making travel
more affordable to more South Africans.
Infrastructure and communications
The Western Cape has an excellent network of highways comparable
with any first-world country.
The primary highways are the N1 (from Cape Town to Three Sisters,
continuing outside the province towards Bloemfontein
and Johannesburg
), N2 (from Cape
Town to Bloukrans River, towards Port Elizabeth
), N7 (from Cape
Town to Bitterfontein, continuing towards Springbok
and Namibia
) and N12 (from
George to Three Sisters, continuing towards Kimberley
and Johannesburg). Other routes are the
"R" roads which connect the smaller towns. All major roads are
tarred with major rural gravel roads well maintained. Limited
access motorways are limited to the Cape Metropolitan Area,
Winelands and Garden Route, however due to the low population
density of the remainder of the province, the highways remain
efficient and high-speed, except during peak holiday travel
seasons, when travel can be slow-going in places due to heavy
traffic.
Telecommunications in the province is highly sophisticated;
however, landline telephone communications still leaves much to be
desired (much due to the
Telkom
telecommunications parastatal's monopoly). All areas have internet
access. Mobile cellular communications is world class with
reception in all densely populated rural areas, all urban areas and
along all major routes (including mountain passes and tunnels). All
national banks are represented almost everywhere, including even
the smallest of towns.
Demographics
Geographical distribution of home
languages in the province.
As of the
census
of 2001, there were 4,524,336 people in the Western Cape,
living in 1,173,302 households. The
population density was 34.97/km² and the
household density 9.07/km². In terms of race, 53.91% of people
described themselves as
Coloured, 26.68% as
Black, 18.41% as
White, and 1.00% as
Indian or
Asian 1.00%.
Age distribution in the province is spread out, with 27.3% under
the age of 15, 19.4% from 15 to 24, 32.9% from 25 to 44, 15.2% from
45 to 64, and 5.2% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age
is 26 years. For every 100 females there are 94.0 males. For every
100 females age 18 and over, there are 91.3 males.
In the province 55.3% of residents speak
Afrikaans at home, 23.7% speak
Xhosa, 19.3% speak English, and less than 2% speak
another language.
81.8% of residents are
Christian, 9.0%
have
no religion, 6.5% are
Muslim, 0.4% are
Jewish, and
0.2% are
Hindu. 2.1% have other or
undetermined beliefs.
5.7% of residents aged 20 and over have received no schooling,
15.2% have had some
primary school,
7.9% have completed only primary school, 36.5% have had some
high school education, 23.4% have
finished only high school, and 11.2% have an education higher than
the high school level. Overall, 34.6% of residents have completed
high school.
63.1% of housing units have a telephone and/or
cell-phone in the dwelling, 34.2% have access to
a phone nearby, and 2.7% have access that is not nearby or no
access. 86.5% of households have a flush or chemical toilet. 87.8%
have refuse removed by the municipality at least once a week and
1.4% have no rubbish disposal. 67.5% have running water inside
their dwelling, 85.2% have running water on their property, and
98.3% have access to running water. 78.8% of households use
electricity for cooking, 73.4% for heating, and 88.0% for lighting.
79.1% of households have a radio, 74.1% have a television, 18.2%
own a computer, 73.5% have a refrigerator, and 41.4% have a
cell-phone.
17.1% of the population aged 15-65 is unemployed. Of the unemployed
persons, 53.4% are Black, 43.0% are Coloured, 0.4% are
Indian/Asian, and 3.2% are White. 23.3% of Black are unemployed,
9.3% of Coloureds, 5.0% of Indians/Asians, and 2.0% of
Whites.
The median annual income of working adults aged 15-65 in the
Western Cape is
R 18,703. Males
have a median annual income of R 21,048 versus R 17,035 for
females. The median annual income by race is R 12,213 for Blacks, R
16,354 for Coloureds, R 42,803 for Indians/Asians, and R 64,968 for
Whites. The annual income distribution is:
| No income |
2.0% |
| R 12 – R 4,800 |
6.5% |
| R 4,812 – R 9,600 |
17.7% |
| R 9,612 – R 19,200 |
25.1% |
| R 19,212 – R 38,400 |
20.1% |
| R 38,412 – R 76,800 |
15.2% |
| R 76,812 – R 153,600 |
8.3% |
| R 153,612 – R 307,200 |
3.3% |
| R 307,212 – R 614,400 |
1.1% |
| R 614,412 or more |
0.7% |
Education
The University of Cape Town
The Western Cape is the most highly educated province with a very
skilled workforce in comparison to any other African region. The
high school graduation rate is consistently around 80%, higher than
any other province.
The province also boasts three
internationally acclaimed universities, namely the University
of Cape Town
, Stellenbosch University
and the University
of the Western Cape
.
- Other Educational Institutions
External links
References
, Cape
Town
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