Mind the pedestrians and other Cape Town, South Africa Local Custom Tips

Cape Townians are the worlds worst jay walkers! Take care if you're driving as they will appear from nowhere and cross the road wherever the want.

It's a Cape Town thing!

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The daily firing of Cape Town's historic Noon Gun. Situated high up on Signal Hill's, Lion Battery, it has a clear view of the sea as well as the city below. There are actually two guns performing this ancient ritual of announcing 12 o' clock to the Mother City, alternating between them every other day, with the 2nd on standby in case the duty gun fails to fire.
The terrain is now open to the public to see the daily firing of the noon gun, this particular gun has been replaced by a similar one, the two now standing side by side.
Soon after the English occupation of the Cape in 1795, the Dutch guns were removed from Imhoff Battery at the Castle and replaced by the latest English 18 pounders.
A time signal has been fired by one of these guns since 1806.
With the advent of the "galvanic telegraph" it became possible to trigger a gun remotely and since 1864 the noon gun has been accurately fired from the master clock of the oldest timekeeper in the country, the South African Astronomical Observatory as it is still being fired today.
As Cape Town developed and grew, the noise of the gun became too loud and violent for the city centre and the guns were moved up to signal hill's Lion Battery from where they are still fired today. The first signal fired from here was on the 4th of August 1902. These same guns are still in use today and the 2 guns used are the oldest guns in daily use in the world.

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The Adderley Street flower sellers are as colourful in their use of the English and Afrikaans language as the flowers they sell. The've been there for generations and have become an important part of the Cape Town scene.

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Traditionally the 2nd January has been an unofficial holiday in Cape Town. (no where else in South Africa is "Tweede Nuwe Jaar" celebrated.
With its origin apparently as a holiday for slaves during the early days of the Cape of Good Hope, the tradition continues today and is celebrated by troops of colourful minstrels or "coons" as they were more commonly known.

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Load Shedding, well that's become quite a buzz word in Cape Town and the rest of South Africa recently. Our national energy supplier ESKOM has tried to blame this on the rapid develoment of the economy, locals blame it on ESKOM'S inefficiency but actually the real reason is that us locals care so much for this planet that we are prepared to go without electricity for extended periods to make this a better place to live.
Besides that, the hidden agenda is to market Cape Town (and the rest of South Africa) as a romantic destination where everone dines by candle light.

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Website: www.eskom.co.za