Infrastructure
Language
English is the dominant business language in Cape Town and South Africa in general. The principal languages spoken in the Western Cape are Afrikaans (63% of population), English (20%) and Xhosa (16%).
Telecommunications
South Africa has the largest and most advanced telecommunications infrastructure in Africa. The commercialised public enterprise, Telekom, is the country's network operator and transmission provider. A five year plan has already been implemented to modernise the network to world-class standards by the year 2000.
The cellular phone network is the fastest growing in the world using the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM).
Broadcasting
There are three open television channels, provided by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and one subsciption service, provided by M-Net.
Media
Cape Town has an English morning newspaper called the Cape Times, an evening newspaper Cape Argus and an Afrikaans morning newspaper Die Burger, as well as a host of community newspapers focusing on specific areas.
Airports
Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) is the main airport serving the Western Cape. The city is currently connected by direct scheduled flights to 23 major cities in 19 countries. Improvements to CTIA include providing additional parking for aircraft and capacity for 6.5 million passengers. By 2015 the terminal satellites will have the capacity to handle 14 million passengers.
Harbours
The Port of Cape Town is one of the largest deep water harbours in Africa and has the capacity to handle the largest container vessels afloat. Japanese and Taiwanese fishing fleets use it as a base. Oil rigs off Western Africa take advantage of its advanced ship repair and maintenance centre. In 1997, the port handled more than 13 million tons (including petroleum).
Roads
Within the City Bowl, there is quite a dense network of roads sprawling around Table Mountain and Signal Hill. The main streets such as the Heerengracht and Buitengracht run from the docklands all the way through the CBD. The N1 motoway is accessible to Cape Town from the Heerengracht. To see a map of the City Bowl with its road network, click here.
Since the late 1950s, Cape Town has developed a modern freeway network that serves the entire Cape Peninsula. Cape Town is linked to the rest of South Africa by three well developed major national motorways. Apart from near towns, they are mostly single-carriageway, but with wide hard shoulders. The N1 leads through Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Pietersburg to the Zimbabwean border. The N2 leads along the south coast through Port Elizabeth, East London and Durban north towards Mozambique. The N7 leads up the Atlantic Coast towards the border with Namibia.
Rail
Passenger trains vary from basic inter-city services to the luxurious Blue Train and Rovos Rail. Cape Town's main railway station is in the city centre and serves both long-distance passengers and local commuters.
Postal Services
The South African Post Office, a commercialised public enterprise, offers normal and specialised services for local and foreign destinations. Major multi-national couriers also serve Cape Town.
Electricity
Eskom is South Africa's national electricity utility and offers among the lowest industrial electricity costs in the world. It is rated the fifth largest electricity utility in the world by sales and generates 95% of the country's electricity. It also supplies more than half the total electricity consumed in Africa.
Water
The water supply infrastructure is well developed. Maintaining this includes expansions of dams, diversions of rivers and the development of alternative sources (eg: tapping underground water or desalinising sea water).