South Africa evokes images of sea, sun, mountains, African culture and game parks, but not everyone realises that it’s also a prime shopping destination.
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| |  South Africa is the Africa’s shopping Mecca | |
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Local industries in all sectors are thriving, and the country produces an array of unique artefacts, textiles, jewellery, leather goods and crafts. Stock up on delicious local beverages, cheeses, dried fruits, sweetmeats and honey, which comes infused with delicate fragrances from orange blossom to eucalyptus.
There is no shortage of covetable goods to take home as a reminder of an unforgettable holiday. (Not to mention the reasonable prices and tourist-friendly exchange rate).
Art, crafts and curios
South Africa is a rich source of beauty and has inspired artists in all mediums, as well as empowering local craftspeople to produce beautiful goods.
Regional art galleries display the best of local talent and will offer advice on buying South African art as an aesthetic and financial investment. The National Arts Trust helps communities to develop their unique traditional skills, using local materials and labour to create objects that add interest and appeal to homes all over the world.
Local craftspeople are frequently in attendance in craft markets where you can spend hours choosing rotund polished hippos, intricate beadwork, stately wooden giraffes and a plethora of other sculpted objets d’art made from colourful beads, gemstones, wood, leather, grasses, fabric and metal.
In Cape Town visit Greenmarket Square, an open market in a cobbled city square selling just about everything. At the V&A Waterfront the Red Shed Craft Workshop is a vast indoor craft market where items are designed and made to order. On Sundays there is a weekly market on the green in scenic Hout Bay.
In Durban artful creations can be found in the old station building, where the African Art Centre promotes the work of local artists. At the innovative harbour Bat Centre, artists and crafters work on-site in studios and sell high-quality decorative items. In the city centre, a wander along Grey Street and the adjoining Victoria Street Market transports the visitor to an exotic place redolent with incense and spices.
In Johannesburg local culture abounds at the African Craft Market in Rosebank, where traders from all parts of the continent compete with each other to charm shoppers with their exquisitely fashioned goods. On Sundays and public holidays the roof of the adjoining shopping centre becomes the popular Rosebank Rooftop Market, selling arts, crafts, consumer goods and foodstuffs. The pick of local wares are also sold by their makers at the roadside, in the central areas of cities and on the scenic routes leading to the country’s many game parks.
Clothing
South Africa’s national fashion schools have begun producing designers of exceptional talent. Look for items by Hip-Hop, Stoned Cherrie, Black Coffee, India Jane, Gideon, Julian, The Boys, Errol Arendz, Jenni Button, Marianne Fassler, Gert van der Merwe, Sun Godd’ess, Juanita Pacheco. You’ll be the toast of any society event back home.
Textiles are also of superb quality, so if you have space, wedge a bolt or two of fine fabric into your luggage allowance – delicate sari material glittering with gold thread, perhaps, or a few lengths of printed cotton bearing, among other quirky African designs, Nelson Mandela’s portrait.
Décor
The last decade or so has seen an explosion in the home accessory and interior design trade, and South Africa’s design industry competes with the very best in the world. From traditional to contemporary, from furniture to crockery and cutlery, a few touches of South African style make any home stand out from the rest. Look for leather furniture and home accessories, pewter implements, paper mache bowls, woven place settings, carved wooden lamps and receptacles, ceramics of all shapes, hues and sizes, embroidered linen, eclectic picture frames and stained-glass light fixtures.
Jewellery
South Africa produces some of the world’s best-quality precious metals and gemstones and has some of the world’s most skilled stonecutters, polishers and jewellery designers. There is a wide choice of finely crafted jewellery to buy as gifts and mementoes. If you’re after glittering diamonds, gold, silver or platinum, this is the place for you. Learn more about these treasures by visiting the diamond mines in Kimberley or Cullinan, the gold mine at Gold Reef City or the charming town of Pilgrim’s Rest, rich in mineral wealth.
Best places to shop in South Africa
South Africa has a first-world infrastructure and shiny shopping malls that rival those in any of the world’s fashion capitals. During holiday seasons and at weekends these centres often feature live performers to entertain shoppers of all ages.
Cape Town
Canal Walk is a shopping and entertainment complex with 400 shops, 18 cinemas and dozens of restaurants. It’s a good place to find hand-made leather and hide furniture, plus gifts and curios of all description.
Cavendish Square is a smaller, upmarket mall concentrating on high-end fashion.
Victoria Wharf, situated at the V&A Waterfront, has restaurants overlooking the bustling harbour, an art-house cinema and a number of stores offering top-quality South African art and objects.
Constantia Village is a Cape Dutch-style complex holding a handful of top-end stores – including a store that supplies locally made fashionable footwear and handbags - where ladies from the vineyard suburbs go to lunch and shop.
A short drive from the V&A Waterfront, on the Atlantic seaboard, are the suburbs of Green Point and De Waterkant. Green Point is home to a few small art galleries as well as furniture and décor stores, and De Waterkant is one of the city’s burgeoning trendy areas. The Cape Quarter, a collection of innovative stores set round a cobbled courtyard, is an excellent place to find contemporary furniture, lampshades, lights, vases and other unique home art.
Durban
The Gateway Theatre of Shopping is Durban’s flagship complex, a gigantic, space-age leisure and retail centre that offers the best of fashion, food, technology and lifestyle. For extreme sports enthusiasts there is a participative surf centre and a skateboard park.
In fashionable Westville, one of the city’s oldest suburbs, the Pavilion is a vast, multilevel shopping centre of lyrical design. Visiting all its upmarket retail and leisure outlets can take at least a day.
Also worth visiting for a further variety of shops are the Workshop, the Musgrave Centre and the La Lucia Mall.
Johannesburg
Sandton City, one of South Africa’s first malls, has received more facelifts than Cher and looks just as good. A favourite haunt of tourists and well-heeled locals, it has 300 shops, plus the added bonus of Nelson Mandela Square, a piazza containing fountains and a famous statue of Mandela, surrounded by eateries and designer stores.
Rosebank Mall attracts trendy youngsters in droves and is a pleasant mix of indoor and outdoor shopping areas, offering a mix of clothing, electronic goods, books, music and esoterica.
Eastgate, Northgate, Westgate, Southgate, Cresta, East Rand Mall and Fourways Malls are similarly styled shopping behemoths in different areas of Johannesburg. So wherever you’re staying you’ll find a one-stop shopping centre offering every gift, memento and precious trinket you need.
The Oriental Plaza in Fordsburg, near Johannesburg’s CBD, is a multi-level bazaar warm with the fragrance of curry and incense and the welcome of shopkeepers who run their own stores. Creators of breathtakingly beautiful saris and sari fabric can be found here. Bright with lanterns and colourful drapes, the centre has long been the first stop for anyone wanting the best in fabrics, curtaining and accessories.
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