I live in Cape town South Africa (the southern tip of africa) and there has been a rumour going around that an earthquake in iminent to hit Cape Town. The last one was in 1806. If anyone could shed some light on the matter I would be most appreciative.

Thanks
Tyron

Welcome TyronR. Where did you hear the rumor?

I've also heard this rumour through word of mouth. The truth is that the last major earthquake in the Western Cape had its epicenter in Ceres and happened on 29 September 1969. Despite me only being 26 (and thus born in 1977), both my parents I grew up there and my folks can attest to this quake. The tremor registered about 6.3 on the Richter scale and the area was declared a disaster area. (See http://www.lando.co.za/ceresmuseum/eartquake.htm )

Ceres (about 100km from Cape Town) is still one of the most seismically active areas of the Cape, despite it being nowhere near the boundary of a tectonic plate. There was a significant tremor just this weekend. Have a look at the following for more information: http://www.geoscience.org.za/seismo/recent2001.htm
http://www.geoscience.org.za/seismo/recent2002.htm
http://www.geoscience.org.za/seismo/recent2003.htm


Sources of the rumour might be:
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/0/01fdd3da2bddcc1985256bb100659468?OpenDocument
http://iafrica.com/news/sa/237829.htm