Capetonian is the Demonym for Cape Town, i.e. it means "of or pertaining to Cape Town".

A Capetonian is person from Cape Town, a city in the Western Cape province of South Africa.

Capetonian can refer to things or manners originating in Cape Town. For instance That band has a very Capetonian style of music. or Though he now lives in London, the artist still designs in a Capetonian idiom.

Capetonian people are stereotyped by Johannesburgers as laid-back, do-nothing, dope-smoking longhaired hippies who drive slowly in the fast lane. There is a grain of truth to this, at least by comparison to Johannesburg.

As you may have noticed, there is a friendly rivalry between Captetonians and the Johannesburgers who come down to Cape Town on summer holiday evey December.

A key characteristics of Capetonians is that they are cliquey - it is unusual to interact with or even talk to people with whom you do not have mutual friends or have not been introduced to. Strangers are distrusted. You do not get into in-depth conversations with people you have never seen before. This leads to the perception that Capetonians are insular and unfriendly.

Another characteristic is snobishness - Cape Town is the mother city - the site of the original European colony, and thus has a longer tradition than the rest of the country. Capetonians strive for sophistication, class, taste and style in contrast with Johannesburg's hustle, novelty and energy.

The fact that Cape Town, with beaches, Table Mountain, wine farms etc. is a far better place to appreciate the good life does help. We don't need to run around all the time like they do in Joburg.

Having observed Capetonians for a couple of decades, I have decided, that they are not laid back. Although they are not working at the same pace as people upcountry, they are kept busy training for or competing in one or more events in the Pretentiousness Olympics.

Of course, the above generalisations cannot be expected to hold much water for a population of over four million people (in 2001), in a multicutural, multiethnic city which embraces the slogan "One City, Many cultures".

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