Cape Flats, noun phrase

Origin:
South African Dutch, EnglishShow more Calqued on South African Dutch Kaapsche Vlakte ‘Cape Plains’; perhaps influenced by English flat ‘piece of level ground’.
The Cape Flats: The stretch of flat, sandy country lying between Cape Town and Somerset West and linking the Cape Peninsula to the hinterland; the flats, see flats sense a. Also attributive.
1822 W.J. Burchell Trav. I. 58The Dutch denominate one part, the Kaapsche Duinen (Cape Downs), and another, the Kaapsche Vlakte (Cape Flats).
1835 G. Champion Jrnl (1968) 8We crossed what are styled the ‘Cape Flats’ being the perfect level ground which lies between Table & False Bays...Nothing but Sand, Sand, Sand.
1836 A.F. Gardiner Journey to Zoolu Country 397Having ridden eighty-four miles, the latter part of which, over the Cape Flats, being loose sand, is the most tedious.
1841 B. Shaw Memorials 220Reached the house of Diana, a woman of colour, who resides upon the Cape Flats, a little after sunset.
1881 Cape Monthly Mag. IV. Mar. 137At Captain Kuiper’s kraal across the Cape Flats they found one of Gonnema’s people, whom they compelled under threat of death to act as guide.
1913 H. Tucker Our Beautiful Peninsula 70The designation of the ‘Cape Flats’ is given to all the low-lying plain which extends beyond the succession of suburban townships strung on the thread of the railway line.
1949 J. Mockford Golden Land 34From these townships on the Cape Flats fast and frequent trains transport the Coloureds to their places of work in and around Cape Town.
1953 Drum Oct. 45The proposals of the Land Tenure Advisory Board..envisage the non-Europeans in small pockets in the Cape Flats while the best and most desirable areas are reserved for European ownership and occupation.
1973 Sunday Times 9 Dec.Many Coloureds..trekked to..the Cape Flats, but unlike other trekkers before them there was no promised land.
1986 Weekly Mail 18 Apr. 4The rents boycott in the Cape Flats townships, already entering its sixth month, took a new turn this week.
1990 R. Gool Cape Town Coolie 147The entire population of District Six would be evacuated to the Cape Flats...The Cape Flats could be turned into a Coloured and Malay dormitory.
1991 [see ghomma sense 2].
The Cape Flats:The stretch of flat, sandy country lying between Cape Town and Somerset West and linking the Cape Peninsula to the hinterland; the flats, see flats sense a. Also attributive.
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Cape Dutch, noun phrasen. phr. & adjectival phraseadj. phr.Cape Floral Kingdom, noun phrasen. phr.
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