Ramaphosa to gather team to find ways to prevent water Day Zero in Cape Town

26 January 2018 - 15:09
By Ernest Mabuza
Deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa
Image: GCIS Deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa says he will gather a team of “many people” to find as many ways as possible to make sure that people of Cape Town do not run out of water.

Ramaphosa was speaking to CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour as Cape Town‚ a centre of tourism and of the country’s wine industry‚ faced the possibility of no water supply in April.

Ramaphosa was at the World Economic Forum in Davos‚ Switzerland.

“I am going back home and I am going to corral as many people as possible to put our heads together and see exactly what we should be doing‚ not only in the immediate term but also in the long term.

“In the immediate term we have got to make sure we bring water to the people of Cape Town without any fail‚” Ramaphosa said.

He said the impending shortage of water in Cape Town showed that climate change was a reality.

“If people around the world ever thought climate change is just a fable‚ we in South Africa are now seeing the real effects of climate change.

“We are facing a real total disaster in Cape Town which is going to affect more than 4 million people‚” Ramaphosa said.