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48 unusual facts about Western Cape


Anele Ngcongca

Calvin Anele Ngcongca (born 21 October 1987 in Cape Town, Western Cape) is a South African football player who currently plays for Belgian Jupiler League club Racing Genk.

Anne Landsman

She was born in Worcester, the daughter of a country doctor, and is a graduate of the University of Cape Town and Columbia University.

Bevan Fransman

Bevan Fransman (born 31 October 1983 in Cape Town, Western Cape) is a South African footballer, currently playing as a centre back for SuperSport United and the South African national team.

Boland cricket team

The Boland cricket team is based in the Boland region of Western Cape province in South Africa.

Bradley August

Bradley John August (born 24 September 1978 in Cape Town, Western Cape) is a South African football (soccer) who can play as defender, midfielder and striker for Premier Soccer League club Vasco Da Gama and South Africa.

Branchipodopsis

Rock pools of this nature occur in various regions of the Southern African subcontinent, including mountain ranges in the Drakensberg, the Western Cape and the Eastern Free State.

Cape Pioneer Trek

Stage 2 was over 85 km from Calitzdorp to Prince Albert, stage 3 109 km from Prince Albert to De Rust, stage 4 63 km from De Rust to Louvain guest farm at Herold, stage 5 75 km from Herold to George, and finally stage 6 84 km from George to Oudtshoorn.

Cape Winelands District Municipality

The Cape Winelands District Municipality, formerly the Boland District Municipality, is a district municipality located in the Boland region of the Western Cape province of South Africa.

Ceres, Fife

The name has led to contact with Ceres, Italy (visited by the local pipe band in the 1970s) and Ceres, Western Cape, South Africa (with which gifts were exchanged in the 1990s).

Clytemnestra

It is an opera in four acts and premiered on November 7, 1967, in Biesenbach Hall, Worcester, Western Cape, South Africa.

Dennehof

Dennehof, Western Cape, a settlement in Overberg District Municipality, Western Cape, South Africa

Diana Ferrus

Diana Ferrus (born 29 August 1953, Worcester, Western Cape) is a South African writer, poet and storyteller of mixed Khoisan and slave ancestry.

Die Matie

8,000 copies of the newspaper are distributed on the main campus of Stellenbosch, as well as on the three satellite campuses, the medical campus at Tygerberg, military campus at Saldanha and business school in Bellville.

Du Pre Alexander, 2nd Earl of Caledon

He was the first governor on the Cape's cession to United Kingdom; the Caledon River and the district Caledon, Western Cape there are named after him.

Fadlu Davids

Fadluraghman "Fadlu" Davids (born May 21, 1981 in Cape Town, Western Cape) is a retired South African football (soccer) striker who last played for Premier Soccer League club Maritzburg United.

Foto na Dans

Foto Na Dans (English: Photo After Dance) is a five piece Afrikaans progressive rock band from Bellville, South Africa, fronted by singer/songwriter Le-Roi Nel (vocals, guitar).

George Thomas Napier

The town of Napier, Western Cape, is named for Sir George Thomas Napier as is Napier House at Fairbairn College, Goodwood, Cape Town.

Huguenot railway station

Huguenot railway station is the main passenger railway station in the town of Paarl, Western Cape, South Africa.

John de Villiers, 1st Baron de Villiers

William Porter, the Attorney General at the time, became his legal mentor and soon afterwards he entered parliament representing Worcester.

Laingsburg

Laingsburg, Western Cape, a town in the Laingsburg Local Municipality, Western Cape

Latitude Varsity

Latitude Varsity is a small university located in Bellville, South Africa.

Malgas Island

Malgas Island is a small, 8.3 ha, uninhabited island lying in the northern part of the entrance to Saldanha Bay, in the Western Cape province of South Africa.

Mary Alexander Cook

Dr Cook’s fascination with Cape architecture and decorative arts started during family holidays to the Western Cape, she studied the topic and did research in the archives.

Milnerton

Paddlers have paddled down the Diep River to the sea from as far up stream as Malmesbury.

Minki van der Westhuizen

Van der Westhuizen was born in Durbanville, Cape Town to an Afrikaner family and attended Stellenberg High School in nearby Bellville.

Mtutuzeli Hlomela

Mtutu had played soccer at junior level and at age 17, won a "football" scholarship through the South Australian and Western Cape sports ministries.

Muizenberg

Muizenberg has a fine, long beach that in effect stretches all the way round the top of False Bay to the Strand, a distance of over 20 km.

Mylothris agathina

Its range has spread Westwards around the coast in recent decades however, and it now occurs to the north of Cape Town to somewhat beyond Saldanha.

Nelson Fogarty

When the missionary Diocese of Damaraland was formed in 1924, he was chosen to be its first bishop, and consecrated as such in St. George’s Cathedral, Cape Town on Quinquagesima Sunday, 2 March 1924 by the Archbishop of Cape Town, assisted by the Bishops of George, Bloemfontein, and St. John’s, Kaffraria, as well as the Coadjutor Bishop of Cape Town, and Bishop Gaul.

Overberg branch line

The line passes through the fruit-farming area of Elgin before descending the Jakkals River valley to Botrivier.

Two extensions of the line from Caledon were possible: eastwards towards Riviersonderend and Swellendam, with the ultimate possibility of reaching Mossel Bay; or southwards towards Napier and Caledon.

Metrorail services of the Northern Line operate from Cape Town through Bellville to Strand; the rest of the line has no regular passenger service.

From Botrivier it runs across the Overberg plain through Caledon to a junction at Klipdale.

The line branches from the BellvilleStellenbosch line at Eerste River, from which it runs through Faure and Firgrove to Somerset West.

The Overberg branch line is a railway line in the Western Cape, South Africa, that runs from Cape Town through Somerset West and Caledon to Bredasdorp.

From Van der Stel station in Somerset West a short line branches to the right to Strand.

Paranomus

The species occur mainly in mountainous areas of the Western and Eastern Cape provinces from the Cederberg to Uitenhage, with the highest numbers found in the districts of Caledon, Worcester and Swellendam.

Prionium serratum

Several rivers in the Western Cape have have been named Palmiet River for this species growing along their courses - two of the larger ones are the Palmiet River mouthing between Betty's Bay and Kleinmond, and one having its source just west of Formosa Peak and eventually joining the Keurbooms River.

This species has a disjunct distribution along the southern and south-eastern seaboard from the Western Cape to KwaZulu-Natal on sandstone substrates, growing in dense mats in marshy areas, and in and along streams and rivers.

Provincial governments of South Africa

The only province that has adopted a constitution is the Western Cape; in doing so it chose to rename its legislature the Provincial Parliament.

Regiment Boland

The Regiment acquired a second battalion in 1972, with the 1st Battalion being headquartered at Paarl and the 2nd Battalion at Worcester.

Rooiels

Rooi-Els, Western Cape, a village on the eastern shore of False Bay in the Western Cape, South Africa

Roridula dentata

It can be found only in the hotter and more arid inland at the mountains of Clanwilliam and Tulbagh' Ceres and can grow up to more than 150 cm.

Sasha-Lee Davids

Sasha-Lee Davids born in Atlantis, Western Cape, South Africa is a singer and the 2009 co-winner of season 5 of the Idols (South Africa) alongside Jason Hartman.

Savanna Dry

Savanna Dry is produced from crushed apples grown in the Elgin Valley of the fertile Western Cape, and it is described as a clear, refreshing and dry tasting cider.

South African mullet

Mullet fish caught in the sea and estuaries of the West Coast region are processed by salting and air-drying into bokkoms by small local factories around Velddrif and Laaiplek.

The Themba Development Project

The Themba Development Project was founded in 2008 when its founder, Catherine Robar viewed the substandard living conditions of the people living in Thembalethu, an informal settlement near the city of George in the Western Cape Province.

Two-foot-gauge railways in South Africa

SAR’s Bellville quarry in the Tygerberg hill, employing Zwillinge locomotives.


Aloe plicatilis

In the wild, Aloe plicatilis is confined to a tiny area in the Western Cape, between the town of Franschhoek and Elandskloof.

Aponogeton distachyos

Native to South Africa Western Cape and Mpumalanga Provinces but introduced elsewhere in quiet ponds in warm temperate to subtropical climates in winter rainfall areas.

Bloukrans Bridge

The Bloukrans River below forms the border between the Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces and is located in the Tsitsikamma region of the Garden Route.

Cape grysbok

The Cape or southern grysbok (Raphicerus melanotis) is a small antelope that is endemic to the Western Cape region of South Africa between Albany and the Cederberg mountains.

Cape Province

The Cape Province was broken up into three smaller provinces: the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape.

Carpobrotus deliciosus

This coastal strip extends along the whole of the Eastern Cape coast, but also extends into the Western Cape as far as Riversdale and into neighbouring Kwazulu-Natal.

COSAT

Centre of Science and Technology (COSAT) is the first of three STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) schools in the Western Cape of South Africa.

Eben Dönges High School

Eben Dönges High School (Hoërskool Eben Dönges) is a government-funded, Afrikaans-medium high school in Kraaifontein, Western Cape, South Africa.

Elegia tectorum

E. tectorum is found in marshes and seeps on deep sand in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape of South Africa.

Elizabeth Triegaardt

In 2003, she received an award from the Western Cape Premier, Ebrahim Rasool, for meritorious service to the Arts in the Province.

Elytropappus rhinocerotis

Although the Renosterveld Vegetation Type is confined to the South-Western Cape of South Africa, the Renosterbos plant is much more widespread - occurring throughout the Cape Floristic Region and further, as far east as Molteno in the Eastern Cape, and as far north as Namibia.

Freylinia lanceolata

This species prefers damp ground, riverbanks and marshy areas in the Western Cape, through to the Eastern Cape.

Garden Route

It extends from Mossel Bay in the Western Cape to the Storms River which is crossed along the N2 coastal highway over the Paul Sauer Bridge in the extreme western reach of the neighbouring Eastern Cape.

Kogelberg

The Kogelberg is a range of mountains along the False Bay coast in the Western Cape of South Africa.

Masiphumelele High School

Masiphumelele High School is a publicly owned secondary school (grades 8-12) in Masiphumelele, Cape Town, in the Western Cape region of South Africa.

Misverstand Dam

Misverstand Dam is a combined gravity & arch type dam located on the Berg River, near Porterville, Western Cape, South Africa.

Overberg District Municipality

The Overberg District Municipality is a district municipality that governs the Overberg region in the Western Cape province of South Africa.

Parachute Association of South Africa

Skydive Robertson (Western Province Sport Parachute Club) - Student Operations, operates out of Robertson Airfield in the Western Cape town of Robertson at the heart of South Africa's wine route Route 62 (South Africa) - 147km from Cape Town.

People Against Gangsterism and Drugs

Violent acts such as bombings and vigilantism in Cape Town subsided in 2002, and the police have not attributed any such acts to PAGAD since the November 2002 bombing of the Bishop Lavis offices of the Serious Crimes Unit in the Western Cape.

Phil Liggett

He spends most of his leisure time in South Africa where he has a house in the Western Cape and a game farm near the Kruger National Park.

Pieter van Dalen

Van Dalen was born in the town of Kuils River in the Western Cape and attended De Kuilen High School He is a Democratic Alliance member of the Parliament of South Africa and DA Deputy Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises.

Protea lepidocarpodendron

It typically grows in sandstone, fericrete and granite soils in the Western Cape from Cape Town to Kleinmond.

Radio Helderberg

Radio Helderberg Is a community radio station situated in the Helderberg basin area of the Western Cape, South Africa.

SAFA Second Division

Currently it features 144 teams in total, divided into 9 divisions, borderly decided by the 9 geo-political provinces of South Africa: Eastern Cape, Free State, KwaZulu Natal, Northern Cape, Western Cape, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West.

South African Class 14C 4-8-2

Some went to the Western Cape where they banked up the Hex River Pass from De Doorns and later worked with Class 19C locomotives across Sir Lowry's Pass to Caledon and Bredasdorp in the Overberg.

South Western Districts cricket team

South Western Districts are a South African first class cricket team based in the Western Cape city of Oudtshoorn, and representing approximately the eastern half of Western Cape province.

Stone pine

In the Western Cape Province, where the pines were according to legend planted by the French Huguenot refugees who settled at the Cape of Good Hope during the late 17th century, and brought the seeds with them from France.

Van der Westhuizen

The well known van der Westhuizen street in the Cape is named after the van der Westhuizen family (Other significant streetnames also exist in the Northern Cape, Western Cape, Gauteng ('Transvaal'), Chatham in the United Kingdom and in Alberta Canada).