This is awesome news, I've really been hoping this would happen and it's a nice suprise. Read more on Google Maps Mania - Big news: African continent gets Google Maps roads and streets:

...Johannesburg has street level maps while the city of Cape Town reveals major routes and unmarked secondary streets.

Throughout the rest of the continent countries like Kenya, Nigeria, and Egypt (to name just a few) all show major routes while some countries contain street level mapping for major cities.

Until now I've used either Shell Geostar (for A to B directions and specific location searching) or Microsoft's Live Search's street maps which present a nicer aerial overview. Although Live's maps for Cape Town in particular aren't any more complete than Google's, I prefer the satellite imagery that Google Maps have which make the hybrid view so much cooler.

For comparison, check out the aerial view of this photo in Live and Google Maps - switch between the two across tabs after removing any side bars in Live; I matched them up pretty well. Here's a closer look.

I realised for the first time the other day that the photo I've linked above is the single point at which South Africa's two longest national roads, the N1 (becomes Table Bay Boulevard) and the N2 (becomes Eastern Boulevard) converge on Cape Town's foreshore. Funny how many times I've driven that route and never thought about it that way.

I had another thought worth sharing the other day: with all the debates around the now confirmed location for Cape Town's new 2010 Football World Cup "African Renaissance Stadium", if FIFA are so transfixed on a location with a view of Table Mountain, why didn't they consider Robben Island? They could engineer a bridge over Table Bay linking to both national routes, and since renaming is all the rage these days (and what or who is Robben anyway), call it "FIFA Island". And then the V&A's Nelson Mandela Gateway would really be a gateway. And you'd be able to take the 3 hour, 11km "Long Walk to Freedom" over the bridge, or run a half-marathon there and back, for a ridiculous touristy price of course. I also like to think that kitesurfers would finally have something physical to jump over.

YEAH!! Who's with me?