African Bank

Banking in Stellenbosch involves navigating account opening that works alongside university semester cycles, managing money transfers between parents in Johannesburg and students in residence, and accessing cash from ATMs scattered around campus and the town centre. The practical side of daily banking—deposits, withdrawals, balance checks—hasn't changed much, but the infrastructure behind it has. Modern bank branches in Stellenbosch now handle these transactions through a mix of in-person tellers, self-service kiosks, and mobile app functionality that assumes you're rarely in the branch anyway. Load shedding has actually pushed banks toward more robust digital-first systems, since branch hours can become unpredictable when there's no power.