IT COULD ONLY HAPPEN IN AFRICA

 Cape Town is brimful of tourists, South African holidaymakers, and squatters by the thousands yet is about to run out of water. Water for drinking, cooking, washing – all water.

At last - at last!- the local council has asked the government to declare the severe drought a national disaster.

 ABC News reports that the Cape province premier, Helen Zille, has written to South Africa President Jacob Zuma to say that the drought has escalated from a threat to an imminent crisis.

That ‘imminent crisis’ affects over three million residents and the great army of tourists, holidaymakers and squatters … and the dear lady has written to Zuma. As the expression goes, it could only happen in Africa.

That postal service

That’s what the report states. She has written. If the letter goes by South Africa’s postal service, the not-wildly-revered leader is unlikely to see it, not this side of Easter, anyway.

And the intended recipient is the very Mr Zuma who is present so often in the news, but not normally in the most flattering way.

I’ve just been visiting that beautiful city, and only on arrival discovered that I had chosen the scene of a pending disaster. It’s true that there are polite notices at the airport and in public places to remind visitors to go easy on the water.

Continues on the blogs for my sailing adventure story, Sailing to Purgatory, at SailingToPurgatory.com