The provincial capital Cape Town is a modern international city and port, and also the seat of the national parliament and legislature. Travel industry opinion is that it is the world's fifth most desirable destination and the only city to feature in BBC TV's top ten. Beyond Cape Town there are coastal areas of fine white sand, fertile rural farming areas, mountain regions and one of the world's best known wine growing areas established by French settlers 350 years ago. The scenery, wild life and plant life are outstanding, also by world standards.

The Cape's climate is broadly temperate and 'mediterranean' in character with hot, but not blistering, summers and warm winters. The seasons are of course 'the opposite' to Europe's (and the sun is in the north).
 

English is spoken everywhere in the Cape, it is the language of business and more people speak English 'at home' than anywhere else in South Africa. Afrikaans and Xhosa are also widely spoken.
 

Cape Town contains one of the world's most expensive suburban districts, Clifton. South African property prices saw the world's highest growth in 2004 (30%) and the world's most sustained growth over 15 years. However, within South Africa house prices are still affordable (well below their historic peak) and in world terms, South African price levels are very low. There is quantity, variety and high quality, and no restrictions on 'foreign' ownership. The Rand is still thought be undervalued (20% according to the Economist 'Big Mac Index'). Electricity costs are the world's second lowest. Tap water is reckoned to be the world's third best.
 

South Africa has had a troubled recent past, with Cape Town university and a consistently robust press media at the forefront of struggles for reform. In 1994 Nelson Mandela was elected president in the first democratic - and peaceful - election of modern times and since then South Africa has developed the world's most progressive Constitution and Bill of Rights. Political stability, consensus and economic growth have been the hallmarks of South Africa's last ten years.
 

South Africa's largest, and one of the world's most significant, modern deep water tanker ports will shortly be developed at Saldhana Bay, north of Cape Town. The football World Cup will be held across South Africa, in 2010. The film industry is now the second largest economic sector in the Western Cape and the subject of huge investment.
 

Crime and the prevalence of HIV-Aids are probably in most people's mind when South Africa is mentioned but it is important to keep things in perspective. The Western Cape has South Africa's lowest incidence of HIV-Aids - by a significant margin.
Crime is an undeniable problem - you will see more razor wire atop walls and fences and security guards than you are used to in the UK - but the greatest crime component is petty theft, and non-violent. Australia has a higher burglary rate, Spain a higher robbery rate, America imprisons more people and Japan has a higher violent crime rate. London's Hackney hospital treats more results of violent assault than does Soweto township's.
The government is making stringent efforts (and deploying some of the financial results of economic success) to combat unemployment by encouraging business, and slum housing through a comprehensive renewal and rebuilding programme.