but under ANC rule, it is a dilapidated slum, with three stories of garbage piled up inside, and filled with crime and squatters.
The decay will never stop, abate or end. It will only worsen.
Posted on 07/21/2018 6:46:58 PM PDT by grundle
Israeli technology could have helped make a difference but the government effectively boycotts Israel
News reports have been covering the looming water-shortage crisis in Cape Town, South Africa’s second-largest city. The focus of the stories, understandably, has been on the likely consequences, scary as they are. What they don’t discuss are the deeper political causes of this shocking situation, in which a major developed city and global tourist destination is about to run out of water.
The immediate cause is a devastating drought, now in its third year in the Western Cape province, of which Cape Town is the capital and economic powerhouse. The dams on which the city relies for its water supply are at dangerously low levels, with no rain forecast for the foreseeable future. But South Africa has faced an escalating water shortage for decades. Two years ago local observers sounded the alarm about Cape Town’s coming crisis. So there has been ample time to develop and implement an action plan. That has not happened. Now it’s the 11th hour: Day Zero — when the dams drop to 13.5-per-cent capacity and the taps are turned off all across the city — is expected by early June. The date was just pushed back from mid-April thanks to conservation efforts that reduced daily water use to below 550 million litres, down from more than a billion litres.
If Day Zero arrives, expect serious unrest as people fight for water. Ratings agency Moody’s, warning of a possible credit downgrade, said that, given the city’s marked income inequality, the water crisis posed a possible threat to social order. It’s going to get ugly, fast. How did it get to this? While there is plenty of blame to go around, here are two interconnected underlying causes.
The Western Cape is the only South African province not controlled by the African National Congress, the national governing party since apartheid’s demise in 1994. The Western Cape is governed by the Democratic Alliance, a liberal opposition party whose base is mainly made up of liberal whites, the so-called “Cape Coloured” ethnic group, and urban, educated blacks disillusioned with the ANC’s epic corruption and mismanagement. This irks the ANC to no end. The national government has been playing politics with water, hoping it might lead to the DA’s downfall if the party is seen to have mismanaged the water issue on its watch. However the water-supply infrastructure is a national government obligation, not a provincial one. The ANC government, focused obsessively on its own retention of power, has done almost nothing to plan for critical new water infrastructure for Cape Town.
The other related key factor has been the ANC’s dogged espousal of political ideology over pragmatic governance. Two years ago, when it could still have made a difference, an international conference on South Africa’s water crisis, organized in Johannesburg by South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper, was cancelled due to political pressure. Israel’s then ambassador to South Africa was to have participated, Israel being a global leader in water conservation, recycling and irrigation, offering cutting-edge desalination technology. The South African wing of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement gloated at this cancellation, saying, “the rug has been pulled from the Israeli ambassador, who will not be able to exploit our very serious water crises for his own cheap publicity and whitewashing of his regime.”
That former Israeli ambassador to South Africa, along with its current ambassador and economic attaché, have reportedly all made repeated offers to the South African government to assist with Cape Town’s water crisis, and have been rebuffed. Never mind that Israeli technology could have helped make a difference. The South African government effectively boycotts Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian cause. Ties between Hamas and the ANC are close: Hamas participated in the ANC’s National Conference this past December. During that conference the ANC decided to downgrade the status of South Africa’s embassy in Israel to a “liaison office.”
Long-term planning for water is absolutely essential. The ANC government has done precious little. It has finally declared the drought a national disaster, meaning that it now takes the lead on dealing with the crisis. Meanwhile, Cape Town city council is rushing to build temporary seawater-desalination plants around the city, but these will likely not be ready in time nor have enough capacity to avoid Day Zero.
Cape Town is barreling toward a cliff, and as usual the poorest will suffer the worst. The ANC has a lot to answer for. Now under new leadership, it has the opportunity to change course. South Africans can only hope that Cyril Ramaphosa’s accession last week as president represents a new and effective engagement of the governing party in this national crisis.
They’re OK. Water levels are around 50%. There’s plenty of water for drinking and flushing. Washing and watering the lawn, not so much.
Numbers 24:9 The nation is like a mighty lion;
When it is sleeping, no one dares wake it.
Whoever blesses Israel will be blessed,
And whoever curses Israel will be cursed.”
and, of course, Genesis 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Just sayin’.
Wakanda forever!
The population simply doesn’t have the IQ to maintain a technological society.
The average IQ of the dominant population is in the 70s and the minimum IQ to function constructively in a technological society is 83 (according to the US Army).
The collapse of South Africa to pre-technological standard of living is inevitable, absent an invasion and takeover by another power.
“...It’s dem whyte peeple’s fault. We waz here before dec!....”
Exactly how they think. Screw em. Hopefully, Israel doesn’t give em a damn thing....let drink their own piss if they’re so good. And all the BLM types here should be shipped over there one way to “help out their brothers”.
The article says the taps would be turned off in early June — it is now getting on to late July. Was “Day Zero” averted yet again, if only temporarily?
Also, were other sources of desalinization resources also rejected in a major way? Yes, the Israelis are probably the “best”, but they are not the only source of such technology.
I have to be a little suspicious of articles and news reports that present such a narrow view of a situation — which in this case means the ANC is probably even more incompetent than described.
Ah, just saw your comment - that answers one of my questions - thanks!
Whites get out while you still can.
This is from February.
Day 0 in June has passed.
There were some rains in autumn that helped push back the crisis.
What Capetown and South Africa needs is an end to the black Marxist tribal government that is focused on a racial war to eliminate white farmers.
But South Africa is no different than democrat run American cities in its corruption, incompetence, and racial politics.
No-brainer. The government is NOT stupid. They are EVIL. And SMART.
Keep in mind that CHAOS is a Deep State government’s BEST FRIEND. They get to create a crisis and now it allows them to expand their power. Most conservatives have known this for decades; the Archie Bunker Republican producers are finally waking up to this very simple dictum.
The water shortage will allow them to dictate policy, and lately, such policies are all racially motivated. This will allow them to gather up the guns they just outlawed from the farmers (though only white farmers; they will give “special circumstances” waivers to others), and provide a more authoritarian, more oppressive presence on the people.
REMEMBER: a DYSFUNCTIONAL government is a FEATURE, and NOT a BUG, of a socialist, oppressive, violent regime.
SA Blacks hate whites and Jews. Long and short of it.
More important than water.
but under ANC rule, it is a dilapidated slum, with three stories of garbage piled up inside, and filled with crime and squatters.
The decay will never stop, abate or end. It will only worsen.
Ponte is in Johannesburg, not Cape Town.
We wuz kangz ‘n sheeeit!
Fo’ sho’ shawty!
dam levels overall in the Cape Town region are at 55.8%.
by far the largest dam:
19 Jul: CapeTownEtc: PICTURES: Theewaterskloof doubles in water levels
Water level readings from 16 July show indicate a 1.8% growth since last week – meaning that dams now sit at 55.1% full compared to last week’s 53.3%.
At the same time last year, dam levels were at an all time low of 26.0%. Theewaterskloof Dam, which just months ago held a water capacity of only 10%, has now filled up to 40.7%. This dam was used internationally to illustrate just how dire the Cape Town water crisis was. NASA On Wednesday released two images to show improvement at Theewaterskloof Dam since the start of the rainy season...
http://www.capetownetc.com/water-crisis/pictures-theewaterskloof-doubles-in-capacity/
the gloBULL warming mob who pushed the Day Zero story have been saying nothing since the rainy season began.
nonetheless, water restrictions will not be relaxed until dams are 85% full...unless that percentage gets revised.
Not all So. Africans hate whites and Jews. However, the ruling elected dictatorship of the ANC (African National Congress), long controlled by the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Marxist dominated labor confederation (Ramaphosa was involved with it), want to drive whites out of governing positions and eventually out of SA altogether.
By denying them clean drinking water and sanitation water/facilities, they can literally starve a city.
Communists are good at starving people. Thesecret burial grounds of Siberia and the Archangel region are proof of that.
Numerous studies back you up. The facts of IQ and race fly in the face of liberalism. They cannot conceive the world as it is. Any deviation must be rooted in racism.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.