Shopping

South Africa is home to the mega-mall - and more and more are being built. These large shopping centres generally have long opening hours and parking for hundreds of cars. Apart from shops, they feature post offices, banks, cinemas, restaurants, fast-food courts and supermarkets. The Gateway Mall in Durban is reputedly the largest shopping mall in the southern hemisphere; coming in second is Canal Walk in Cape Town. Johannesburg has several giant shopping centres including the Eastgate and Southgate malls.

In the tourist areas, malls feature shops selling crafts and souvenirs - particularly at Cape Town's V&A Waterfront where there are a number of upmarket African art and curio shops, and in Johannesburg's Rosebank Mall, which is also home to an African craft market.

Away from the malls, African souvenirs can be found in all the cities and along the coast. The bewildering variety of items to buy from across the continent include wooden sculptures, hand-crafted wire objects, cloth and batiks, jewellery, carved soapstone products, drums, stationery made from handmade paper and a vast range of pictorial books. Gold and diamonds make for good buys in South Africa and local wine, brandy and liqueur are cheap and usually excellent.

On departure at the airports or land borders, visitors can claim a 14% VAT refund, minus a 1.5% commission (minimum commission R10), on any unused purchases with a total value of R250 or more bought in South Africa. You need to show your passport, flight ticket, the items and their original tax invoices to the customs officer at the VAT refund desk. For more information look online (www.taxrefunds.co.za).

Shopping hours: Mon-Fri 0900-1700, Sat 0900-1400, although there is an increasing trend to open later and all weekend in major tourist spots and in the large shopping malls. In the cities, there are 24-hour convenience stores.