Ratanga Junction was an

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...

located in

Century City Century City is a 176-acre (71.2 ha) neighborhood and business district in Los Angeles, California, United States. Located on the Westside to the south of Santa Monica Boulevard around 10 miles (16 km) west of downtown Los Angeles, Cent ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The park opened in December 1998 as part of the development of the Century City area, adjacent to Cape Town's biggest shopping centre,

Canal Walk Canal Walk is a shopping mall located in Cape Town, South Africa. It is part of Century City, a suburb and 250 hectare mixed-use development, built in 1997, that sits alongside the N1 freeway. The largest mall in the city and the third largest ...

. Its biggest ride was the

Cobra COBRA or Cobra, often stylized as CoBrA, was a European avant-garde art group active from 1948 to 1951. The name was coined in 1948 by Christian Dotremont from the initials of the members' home countries' capital cities: Copenhagen (Co), Brussels ...

rollercoaster. Ratanga Junction had a tropical island theme as can be seen in its logo and the fact that the park hosted several wet rides. Since early on Ratanga Junction struggled from financial difficulties, scaling back the number of restaurants throughout the early 2000s and rumours of its imminent closure going back as far as 2004. These rumours were exacerbated by the park closing for certain winters in order to prevent losing money from running at a loss during winter and the sale of the park seemed likely to many Cape Town residents since the surrounding developments in Century City were all running successfully. Part of Ratanga Junction was closed in 2014 to make way for the Century City Square development, with the Diamond Devil Run, Crocodile Gorge, rides decommissioned. Diamond Devil Run was reopened as Tren Minero at the Fantasilandia park in Chile. Additionally, Cobra was decommissioned and bought by

Lost Island Theme Park Lost Island Theme Park is a amusement park, theme park in Waterloo, Iowa. The park includes five themed lands, which feature numerous attractions; including three roller coasters. Lost Island Theme Park is owned by the Bertch family, who operate ...

in Iowa, where it currently operates as Nokupo Air Coaster. On August 29, 2017, it was officially confirmed by the Rabie Property Group that the amusement park would be closing. The park was officially closed down on May 1, 2018. The area will be redeveloped for residential apartments, offices, hotels, restaurants and convenience retail. Much of the old Ratanga Junction is open to the public as part of the new Ratanga Park, this is composed of a Waterbody and Public Park with the aim of being added to the Century City Parkrun when construction on the property is complete.

References

{{commonscat, Ratanga Junction Amusement parks in South Africa Defunct amusement parks Tourist attractions in Cape Town Amusement parks opened in 1998 Amusement parks closed in 2018 1998 establishments in South Africa 2018 disestablishments in South Africa