CAPE FLATS

low, sandy area extending inland from the peninsular Cape of Good Hope, Western Cape province, South Africa, and occupying most of the isthmus between Table Bay and False Bay. In relatively recent geologic times, the flats were under the sea. Once covered by low bushes, the area was stripped barren by early settlers seeking firewood, and not until the late 19th century was it cultivated. Much of Cape Flats is now a truck-farming region and an area of large housing estates occupied mostly by South Africans of mixed race.