Firgrove, Western Cape

Macassar is a small town in South Africa, close to Strand and Somerset West, with an approximate population of 33,225. Administratively it is a suburb of the City of Cape Town.Macassar’s history is closely tied to the Strand, whose inhabitants first settled this area. The kramat (shrine) of Sheikh Yusuf (Tuanta Salamaka) of the Sultanate of Gowa, in present-day Makassar in Indonesia, is a holy place to South Africa's Muslim community. The Sheikh, who was exiled by the Dutch in 1694, came to the Strand area and made it his final resting place; although his followers, who were mainly fishermen, found the sea of Macassar rather uninviting and moved further along the coast to Strand’s Mosterds Bay. After Yusuf died, his followers named the area after his birthplace, spelling it with "c" in place of "k". The Macassar Dunes Conservation Area forms part of the vital coastal dune system, one of the biodiversity hotspots of the Western Cape. These dunes have been impacted by conflicting activities such as cattle grazing and 4X4 vehicle use. Macassar is a predominantly Coloured community close to the Macassar Dunes, whose workers historically are in the fishing and boatmaking industry.

The Helderberg Marine Protected Area is a small marine conservation area on the north-eastern side of False Bay in the Western Cape province of South Africa, It lies between the mouths of the Lourens River in the Strand, and the Eerste River in Macassar. The Helderberg MPA is in the warm temperate Agulhas bioregion. The shoreline is sandy beach with mobile dunes, and the seabed is low sandstone reef with kelp beds and sand sediments. The areas nearest to the river mouths are in relatively poor condition due to pollution of the river water. The beach inside the MPA is the most pristine part of the north shore of False Bay.

The squatter's movement Abahlali baseMjondolo occupied a piece of vacant state owned land in Macassar Village, near Somerset West outside of Cape Town on 18 May 2009. The occupation was later destroyed by the city's anti-land invasion unit.

The Eerste River, located in the Western Cape, South Africa, rises on Dwarsberg 60 km east of Cape Town at the head of Jonkershoek. The Eerste River catchment covers the eastern part of the Cape Flats lying to the west of the Hottentots Holland Mountains and south of the Tygerberg where the Kuils River tributary rises east of Kanonkop. The Eerste River is a short river; its length has been given as 40 km. The major tributary, Kuils River, is approximately 30 km long to its point of confluence with the Eerste River. A population of the endangered local endemic Berg River Redfin (Pseudobarbus burgi) was found in the Eerste River. It has become extinct in recent times.

Macassar Dunes Conservation Area is a 1,116-hectare (2,760-acre) coastal nature reserve in Macassar, within the City of Cape Town, South Africa.

The Faure level crossing accident was a truck-train collision near Cape Town, South Africa that caused nineteen deaths. It occurred at approximately 8 a.m. on 13 November 2006 when a Metrorail train collided with a truck that had stalled on an uncontrolled level crossing at Faure near Somerset West. The truck was carrying at least thirty-three workers from a local vineyard and there were nineteen fatalities (eleven men and eight women) and six other injured people among the occupants of the vehicle. Original estimates had the death toll as high as twenty-seven, but this soon fell to twenty and then nineteen. No passengers on board the train were injured but Metrorail reported that several suffered psychological shock. Witnesses reported seeing smoke but no fire.

Faure is a hamlet some 16 km south-west of Stellenbosch and 13 km north-west of Strand. Administratively it is a suburb of the City of Cape Town, and is in the Helderberg region. Nearby is the kramat or tomb of Sheik Yusuf (1626-1699), an Islamic expatriate priest. Faure is a common surname; it is uncertain after whom this place was named. It may have been named after Pieter Faure, the name of South Africa's first trawler which arrived in Table Bay in 1897.

Raithby is a village in the Stellenbosch Local Municipality. As of the 2011 census, the village had a population of 908. It lies on the western side of the R44, just off the Winery Road that leaves the R44 to connect Stellenbosch with Firgrove. Amenities in Raithby include a Methodist church and a church-owned primary school.

Somerset Mall is a 69,000 m2 (740,000 sq ft) shopping mall situated alongside the N2 freeway near the towns of Somerset West and Strand, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The mall comprises 200 stores and 3,955 parking spaces. Its anchors include Woolworths, Pick n Pay, Game, and Edgars

Dick Dent Bird Sanctuary is a 10 hectares (25 acres) reserve in Strand, South Africa. This isolated bird sanctuary is located near the estuary of the Lourens River. It used to be the site of a waste water treatment works but is now protected within the Lourens River Protected Natural Environment. It is managed by the nearby Helderberg Nature Reserve with help from the Somerset West Bird Club, and it is now a habitat for a great many water birds.