PEOPLE say that South Africa is not really Africa at all. And it's true, the city centre of Cape Town, where I was at the end of last week, could be the heart of any number of prosperous, western-orientated cities around the world, with its skyscraper office blocks, shopping malls, manicured parks.

But then something odd happens. Come the evening, cities go quiet. But not as much as the centre of Johannesburg and many other major cities of South Africa, which I am told almost empty.

All very odd, until you are reminded of the reason. Apartheid. One of the most terrible words in any language. It was finally abolished when Nelson Mandela became the first ever democratically elected President of South Africa in 1994.

But, whilst apartheid has legally been dead and gone for a decade, its terrible legacy still lives on, and will take decades more before it is finally eradicated from the psyche, and the relative living standards of the different multiracial communities in South Africa.

At the core of the revolting doctrine of apartheid - "separate development" - was the Group Areas Act. This allocated the different racial groups - Blacks, Asians, "coloureds", whites - to different areas.

No surprise that the best land went to the whites; the worst housing in the least accessible areas was for the blacks. The black "townships" were typically vast, soulless places on the edge of urban areas. That's why the cities used to empty though there has been some improvement in city life in the evening. They still empty today too much, because most black and other non-white people still have to live where they were put under apartheid - a long way out.

Across the bay from Cape Town is Robben Island, apartheid South Africa's Alcatraz in which the rgime kept its political prisoners. Most of Nelson Mandela's 26 years incarceration were spent there.

I was taken to Robben Island by one of Mandela's fellow inmates, a man called Eddie Daniels. Now in his seventies, Daniels spent 15 years on the island.

So long that he did not recognise his own son on his release.

If you saw Daniels you would think he was white. He has paler skin than most of us "whites" after a couple of days on the beach. But, under the arbitrary rules of apartheid, he was officially "coloured". So, in the eyes of the rgime and their "law" Daniels committed another crime - falling in love with a white woman. The government has achieved a great deal since; but there's a long way to go, before the cities are buzzing at night with people of all races and more importantly, jobs and health care and schooling for all the non-whites really gets to the level of the white population.

But I'm optimistic it can be done.