[devnull791101]

even though the dams are almost depleted the city's lack of water is more due to political issues than water management. the government is insisting that the local desalination plant manufacturer (which supplies australia and other countries) operate through a "Black Economic Empowerment" partner which heavily inflates the cost, and most likely will be tied to "the worlds most corrupt presidents" partners in crime, the Gupta family.

[lgleason]

This is why this is happening. Everybody is quick to jump on the climate change bandwagon, but the government in ZA is VERY inefficient, incompetent and corrupt... to the point of making many other countries worst days look like competence. If the land reform goes through without compensation expect it to get a lot worse (which is being actively talked about by some of the parties). The compensated land reform has already been a disaster. Farms that were purchased and distributed went from being productive farms to producing nothing in many cases. This is all about mis-management. The Western Cape provincial government, which is where Cape Town is, is one of the more functional governments in the country too.

[cup-of-tea]

For those outside of SA, dam in this context means reservoir.