r/capetown

I've been a lover of rock music my whole life (in my late 30s now). Grew up as a teenager on the Cape Flats in the early 2000s so Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, My Chemical Romance were all part of my alt rock lifestyle. Naturally, as my love expanded for the genre as I got older and got introduced to the older rock (Rock n Roll, Heavy Metal, Grunge etc) and of course enjoying the rock of the more recent years. But for the life of me, I've only come across Biffy Clyro today. Mountains is an amazing song! Guess I'm a rock lover living under a rock. If that isn't the definition of irony then I dont know what is:) Happy Friday!

Hey, hope you all are well!

I’m currently feeling quite overwhelmed trying to decide on the best option for giving birth in Cape Town. Having grown up around public hospitals, I can’t help but feel anxious about delivering in one, especially as a first-time mom. I’ve seen and heard enough to worry about the level of care and attentiveness, and it makes the whole experience feel a bit daunting.

At the same time, private hospitals are incredibly expensive. I looked into home birth as well, but the costs are also quite high—around 25K just for the birth itself, and that doesn’t even include antenatal or postnatal care. Altogether, it could easily come close to 45K.

I feel quite stuck at the moment and unsure of what the best path forward is. I’ve heard that Mowbray Maternity Hospital is often recommended, but I’m a bit confused about how it works. From what I understand, you arrive when you’re already in labour, and there isn’t much in terms of planning beforehand—you just hope there’s space available. I’m not sure how accurate that is, and it makes me a little uneasy.

I would really appreciate any advice or guidance you guys might have 🤍

Hi all, I’m looking to find a medical professional such as a psychiatrist who specializes in psychedelic therapy for depression and anxiety. I haven’t been able to find many options online and I’m not looking for a spiritual healer. Appreciate your help!

I've been eyeing the paragliders around Lion's Head for years, and have always been keen on doing it myself. Searching for schools gives you about 20 results, but which one would be the best? Is there anyone in the sub that flies and won't mind sharing some wisdom?

Side note, I used to skydive, but the cost became just too much, so I'm well aware of the mentality that one needs for these types of sports.

What is the going rate for a live-out nanny/domestic worker these days? She’d be responsible for looking after one infant and doing household work-laundry, ironing, house cleaning etc. for 8 hrs per day. She is trained in CPR and first aid.

She would not be driving anywhere or cooking.

Is it normal to add transport costs on top of this?

Thanks!

 

I recently saw some weird AI generated content created by cape independence lunatics/racists and I think it needs to clarified that we did have an “indpendent” cape in the past and so few people are actually educated about even the basics of what the cape colony was and what it represented- both its successes and its ultimate failure so I will turn this into a several part series where I give a brief and simple summary of the history of the Cape Colony. I hope to do this in several parts, this is not an exhaustive overview but I will focus on issues that I think are important to understanding the Cape and why Cape indepdence advocates have no idea what they are talking about.

https://preview.redd.it/6iylzpe5r9ug1.jpg?width=936&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8256c6ce0137ea850cc24153887937435a0391e1

Part 1- The Cape Qualified Franchise

When people here the term qualified franchise the first thing they may think is that this sounds quite regressive- having to qualify to vote seems pretty undemocratic- but historical context matters.

Firstly lets look at what the Cape Qualified Franchise was and why it came about.

In 1853 the franchise was set as follows 1. In order to vote you needed  own property of the value of at least 25 pounds or earn a salary of 50 pounds or have a salary of 25 pounds if board and lodging  was provided for you. 2. The franchise was non racial- it was not restricted to white men, anyone who met the franchise requirements could vote which meant coloureds and africans who owned land worth at least 25 pounds could vote while many poor whites did not qualify to vote.

Now at first this may seem rather illiberal but in the context of the British empire and the world at the time this was actually one of the most progressive electoral systems in the world. In the Mother country Britian the franchise was the franchise systems of the cape and Britian were comparable- in Britian for those living in Britian it was mostly those who owned property of at least 10 pounds or those who paid a lease on a property of at least 50 pounds- so it was more or less in line with what Britian had. To compare by 1850 the most white men in the US could vote but only white men could vote, in the Canadian colonies the franchise was similar to the  cape and Britian if slightly lower but indigenous people could not vote. In the rest of the world especially Europe voting was less common or even more restricted(though France had universal manhood franchise by this point and probably and the most progressive system in the world), so broadly the Capes system was in line with Britian’s own voting system while at the same time being more inclusive then the Canadian colonies and the United States racially.

https://preview.redd.it/t1k5ome5r9ug1.jpg?width=781&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b1e264ea0e5a4c917e48b6032bad099105e92e71

Why was the franchise so inclusive?

While some cape polticians genuinely believed in non racialism  and that race discrimination was wrong(including future Prime Minister John Molteno) the main motiviation should be understood in the context of the cape being a frontier society where violence was the norm and there was little ability for the state or the colonial authoraties to enforce there power. The main cause seems to have been when during the 8^(th) frontier war against the Xhosa when the previously loyal coloured unit the cape mounted rifles rebelled and joined the great Xhosa  chief Moquoma in fighting the british. This was after more discriminatory policies were put in place by british authorities that targeted the Coloured and Khoi inhabitants of the Kat River Settlement which had specifically been set up for non whites.

The precarious nature of life in the cape meant that it was safer to coopt non whites into the poltical system then to exclude them from it. The famous quote here from William Porter the Cape Colony’s attorney general stated that :

 “Why should you fear the exercise of franchise? This is a delicate question but it must be touched upon. I do not hesitate to say that I would rather meet the Hottentot at the hustings, voting for his representative, than in the wilds with his gun upon his shoulder. Is it not better to disarm them by granting them the privileges of the constitution? If you now blast all their hopes and tell them they shall not fight their battles constitutionally, do not you yourselves apply to them the stimulus to fight their battles unconstitutionally?”

 

The first election- 1854

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I really like looking at the electoral divisions of the cape. The original borders of the Cape included the modern western cape as well as small bits of the modern northern cape and the western half of the modern eastern cape. The cape had yet to expand up to modern Kimberly or to the Xhosa heavy regions beyond the Kei river.

In terms of the poltical system the cape had 2 houses- the lower house assembly and the upper house legislative council.

For the lower house there were 46 seats- about 2 seats per electoral district  plus extra seats for cape town and  Grahamstown. Voters in the lower house had as many votes as there were seats so you as a voter you could in say Paarl for example you as a voter would have two votes- you could either choose to vote for two different candiates or you could do what they called “plumping” which was giving all  2 of your votes to one candidate.

The upper house Legislative council was divided into an eastern and western division. There were 8 seats in the western division and 7 seats in the eastern divisions. Voters had in the eastern division for example had 7 votes which you could either give to one candidate or you could split it among several candidates- the top 7 candidates with the most votes from the eastern division would then go to Parliament.

Eastern Cape Secession?

For a long time there was a very real threat that the eastern cape would secede from the Cape as a separate colony- this was due to Eastern settlers believing that the government in cape town was too distant and that they weren’t doing enough to expand the colony into the neighboring Xhosa kingdoms. This was eventually resolved as the colony expanded east opening up land and trade to white settlers further east. The cattle killing movement weakened the various Xhosa states immensely allowing the Cape to expand.

To the east of the Cape colony was another British colony that we don’t hear about too often probably because of its name(British Kaffaria- yes, that was the name) which encompassed much of the eastern cape east of Grahamstown in the cape colony and east of the Kei river, Initially this colony was rejected and was one the few colonies that was dis-established by the British in the 1830’s as the annexation of Xhosa land was considered to be both unjust by local cape politicians and the British government. Nevertheless settler pressure eventually saw it reestablished and it was eventually absorbed into the cape colony in 1866.

Conclusion-

The Cape Colony could be said to be the first real attempt at a multiracial South Africa which is not really emphasized enough in our school books. Yes it was not perfect, yes it was a colonial project but it was one of the only real attempts at a multiracial South Africa before the 1990’s. The fact that it has been underplayed for so long has a lot to do with the Apartheid government wishing to portray the cape as a failure while in modern South Africa there is a taboo about speaking about the Cape due to its association with colonial expansion. As I will show later in other parts non white voters and people were very attached to the Cape and most opposed Union with the rest of South Africa as they rightfully believed that it would lead to the end of the cape qualified franchise and the imposition of the racial policies of the Transvaal and the free state but we will look more at that in later parts.

We should not romanticize the cape nor should we simply dismiss it. It existed and deserves to be seen on its own terms- a path no matter how flawed that South Africa(or even the cape on its own) could have continued to follow.

In the next part we will look at the cape getting responsible government and internal autonomy, the interference of British officials in the capes system in order to push for south African confederation with the Boer states and natal before the first boer war , why Namibia should have been part of the cape colony and how expansion beyond the Kei river pushed by British officials led to the slow erosion of the cape liberal franchise

 

Hi all, thanks for having me in your stunning country! I’m (32f) here from London just until Tuesday. I want to go up table mountain for sunrise on Sunday or Monday when it’s no longer overcast but do not want to go alone. I know it’s last minute but getting money back from emerites has been one nightmare after another so my itinerary has had to change a lot over my stay. Would really love to go up with a group or someone else that happens to be going/wanting to go up. Please let me know if this sounds like something you’d be down for🙏✌️🌻🇿🇦

So I am in the process of getting a huge disability aid, which will defiently show the general public I have an invisible disability and that I need to park in a disabled parking spot.

How do I go about getting one of those cards? Is it hard to get one? I have done some research, but I prefer to learn from others' experiences.

I live in the northern suburbs, but we drive all over the Cape and surrounding cities.

Help is greatly appreciated!

Hey everyone, moving to houtbay for around 6 months to a year for work and I’m a bit new to setting up an ISP.

Anyone in or from the area able to give any advice on who’s good or not?

Looking for a simple 30/30 line that could be upgraded later if necessary.

Thanks for any responses :)

Howzit everyone.

Is it just me or is the property24 website running slow for everyone? Everytime I go on there to look at house it takes forever to load the photos. Whats going on?

My new favourite city