By Bud YZa Many political experts think the ANC should worry about losing power in the 2019 elections. That may be so, but I believe the DA should be equally concerned about losing the Western Cape and Cape Town in the same elections.
I am tired of Maimane, Zille, De Lille and others variously blaming the national government and the people of Cape Town for the water crisis that we now face. The DA has been in power long enough, and the predictions of this impending water emergency long ago enough, to have acted with purpose and urgency to avoid what is going to be our very own version of Armageddon. In all that wasted time the DA has simply shuffled the chairs in council chambers while the dam levels sank. There is going to be chaos, violence and anarchy as the DA-led city will be logistically unable to provide water for its residents.
Yes, the national government is not faultless, but as governors of the City and province, it was incumbent upon the DA to rattle the cage of national government hard and long enough until the required assistance fell through the bars. It was up to the DA to look at long-term planning for the City and to hear, accept and believe the published warnings of the inevitability of this fast approaching catastrophe, recognise the urgency required to combat it and demonstrate the political will to do what was necessary to defeat it.
The DA has failed in their sworn duty on all counts and will now have the ignominious distinction of being the governors of the first major city in the world to run completely out of water. Good job guys! Is this the party other metropoles, and the country at large, will want to govern them? I think not.
The Western Cape and the City of Cape Town have demonstrated no foresight, no intelligence and no ability to handle this disaster. Instead of focusing on the practical and urgent, by far their ‘best’ idea and biggest strategic effort, major focus and majority of their time has been spent on trying to force through their ill-thought drought levy. As if extra money in the City coffers would miraculously turn into water and solve all our problems, Hallelujah! How naive. How short-sighted. How stupid!
They proved how careful they are about spending our money wisely by conceiving their next ‘best’ idea, thinking it a good idea to pay millions to ex-DA leader Tony Leon’s company, to communicate to residents that this debacle is actually all our own the fault, the residents of Cape Town.
The arrogance of De Lille, Zille and Maimane is equal to that of Zuma and the Guptas. They are treating their tax- and rate-paying residents as fools and their transparency is about as clear as the sludge at the bottom of Theewaterskloof dam. Their lack of real meaningful information to the public is unacceptable. Why do we still not have a map of water points, so people can start planning? Why are the water guzzlers still anonymous? What are the verified water-usage figures for their own homes? Or is the reason for the paucity of meaningful information simply because they don’t have a clue what to do or how we’re all going to get through our own Apocalyptic reality?
We have heard much about domestic water use. What I would like to know is: what about commercial and business water use? Will office blocks and malls also be cut off? People already let offices loos ‘mellow’ but who will be responsible for loo water when Day Zero arrives? Will I have to carry my own 25-litre bottle of water to flush the loo at my office? Who decides who mellows and who flushes? Why should I use my water to flush other people’s business? Will everyone refuse to use their water to flush? Will we find both 1s and 2s being left to mellow and loos becoming chockablocked? What is the City’s plan for office blocks?
Should moms go shopping for the weekly groceries lugging a 25-litre water bottle around to flush the loos just in case they or their children need to go to the loo? And will she have to use her own water to flush? Will mall loos also become chockablocked?
Have our dignified leaders even thought of this? If they have, why have they not communicated directly to us about it? Please, we’d rather not hear from Tony Leon’s crowd and have to endure the reality that every syllable is money that could have been used more effectively to tackle the actual water problem.
Oh, and by the way: Could one of our esteemed city councillors please ask the police to, well, police the spring-water point in St James? People take bakkie loads of large containers and fill each and every one while dozens of other people have to wait for hours and hours and hours and eventually give up and go home. I thought we were only supposed to fill one 25-litre container per person? If this is how the City ‘controls’ the few water points available now, how the hell are they going to manage when everyone needs to collect their 50-litre per day allowance when the taps run dry? Chaos it will be, I tell you, and violence. Let’s see if you can sort out and handle this one single water point effectively? Surely that won’t be too much to ask?
As I mentioned, Cape Town is going to become Armageddon. Snigger now, but mark these words.
Be worried about 2019, DA. Be very worried.
By Bud YZa
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