New water restriction tariffs hit Cape Town: what you need to know

[f2wohf]

Dear Capetownian forumites, you can now thanks Pastor Mboro and obviously contribute to the purchase of his new i8.

Pastor Mboro: Day zero in Cape Town postponed because of my prayer ow.ly/eQtl30ifBPj

 

[Spizz]

She's a dinosaur and needs to join De Lille under the bus, which is where I hope Maimane throws her. I get the feeling that Zille is the SA equivalent of Trump.

It's amazing how her struggle credentials are quickly forgotten when another agenda has to be served.

 

[biometrics]

It's amazing how her struggle credentials are quickly forgotten when another agenda has to be served.

Oh please. Don't give me the 20-30 years ago "struggle credentials". People like that have no skills to run countries, provinces or cities. Get rid of these dinosaurs.

 

[Spizz]

Oh please. Don't give me the 20-30 years ago "struggle credentials". People like that have no skills to run countries, provinces or cities. Get rid of these dinosaurs.

Whether she has the skills to be a politician or not is neither here nor there.

My issue is that all of a sudden she is a racist dinosaur, when amongst many other notable and public actions, she actually had the balls to open her home to political activists on the run during a state of emergency while you sat on the beach drinking beer.

But now she's a dinosaur who must be thrown under the bus?

 

[biometrics]

while you sat on the beach drinking beer.

Wtf?

 

[Spizz]

Wtf?

Sorry if it sounds a bit harsh, it came out different than it meant to. I'm trying to make a point that she has been targeted for character assassination and labelled a racist when she is clearly anything but.

She actually walked the walk and now she is no longer deemed relevant by people who haven't got a clue what she went through in the name of equality. I wonder if the people clamouring to throw her under the bus have any idea who this woman is and what she has done for South Africa? And I'll guarantee you it's a damn sight more than they ever have or ever will do for their country.

 

[biometrics]

Sorry if it sounds a bit harsh, it came out different than it meant to. I'm trying to make a point that she has been targeted for character assassination and labelled a racist when she is clearly anything but.

She actually walked the walk and now she is no longer deemed relevant by people who haven't got a clue what she went through in the name of equality. I wonder if the people clamouring to throw her under the bus have any idea who this woman is and what she has done for South Africa? And I'll guarantee you it's a damn sight more than they ever have or ever will do for their country.

She and Patricia are both scape goats. Not sure for what or what the DA is trying to do. But the DA are idiots. They are ****ing up their 2019 chances.

 

[Spizz]

She and Patricia are both scape goats. Not sure for what or what the DA is trying to do. But the DA are idiots. They are ****ing up their 2019 chances.

Indeed. And they are complicit in the demonising of HZ by pandering to the idiots on twatter instead of confronting them.

 

[air]

Sorry if it sounds a bit harsh, it came out different than it meant to. I'm trying to make a point that she has been targeted for character assassination and labelled a racist when she is clearly anything but.
She actually walked the walk and now she is no longer deemed relevant by people who haven't got a clue what she went through in the name of equality. I wonder if the people clamouring to throw her under the bus have any idea who this woman is and what she has done for South Africa? And I'll guarantee you it's a damn sight more than they ever have or ever will do for their country.

+1, could not agree more.

 

[C4Cat]

It's amazing how her struggle credentials are quickly forgotten when another agenda has to be served.

What are her struggle credentials?

 

[Zoomzoom]

What are her struggle credentials?

We all know Helen Zille as the Premier of the Western Cape and leader of the Democratic Alliance(DA), but what else do you know about her?

- Helen Zille was born in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, the eldest child of parents who separately left Germany in the 1930s to avoid Nazi persecution (her maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother were Jewish).

- Her father's uncle was the artist Heinrich Zille.

- Her mother was a volunteer with the Black Sash Advice Office.

- She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Witwatersrand

- Zille speaks fluent English, Afrikaans, Xhosa and German.

- Helen is married to Professor John Maree, and together they have two sons, Paul and Thomas.

- Prior to entering politics, Helen Zille made a name for herself during the apartheid era as a political journalist, working for the Rand Daily Mail, South Africa’s leading liberal newspaper.

- As a political correspondent for the now defunct Rand Daily Mail, Zille's journalistic skills helped her uncover the true story behind Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) leader, Steve Biko's death in 1977, which she discovered were due to police brutality and not natural causes as the government had claimed. The Apartheid government’s reaction to the article was to threaten the Rand Daily Mail with banning and called Zille and her editor, Allister Sparks, before the Press Council. The Presiding Judge of the Council, Justice Oscar Galgut, found both Zille and Sparks guilty of “tendentious reporting” and forced the Rand Daily Mail to make a correction.

- She resigned from the Rand Daily Mail along with editor Allister Sparks, after the paper's owner, Anglo American, demanded that Sparks tone down the paper's equal rights rhetoric.

- Zille was heavily involved in the Black Sash movement during the 1980s. She served on the regional and national executives of the organisation, and was also vice-chair of the End Conscription Campaign in the Western Cape.

- During this time she was arrested for being in a "group area" without a permit, and received a suspended prison sentence.

- Zille and her husband later offered their home as a safe house for political activists during the 1986 State of Emergency, and she was temporarily forced into hiding with their two-year-old son.

- She knew and was mentored by anti-apartheid figurehead Harry Schwarz since she was a child.

- Zille was also actively involved in the South Africa Beyond Apartheid Project and the Cape Town Peace Committee. She later gathered evidence for the Goldstone Commission which investigated attempts to destabilise the Western Cape before the elections in 1994.

https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2014-04-25-things-you-may-not-know-about-helen-zille/

 

[xrapidx]

because it is too expensive for anyone but the rich and we live in a world where, despite what the rich may wish to sweep under the carpet and pretend doesn't exist, there are poor people who need social assistance. The rates and taxes the rich pay subsidise the poor. If they decide they are going to use their wealth to stop paying, then other means need to be found to get the money from them in other ways. Unfortunately other forms of wealth taxation don't happen, instead the poor end up bearing the burden they can't afford. It makes the poor poorer, the municipality and government not only have less income but also end up with more people claiming indigent benefits. It is a very poor decision on the part of the rich to opt out of the system.

No it's not - they opt out the system because the government cannot provide a decent service - must I not go off the grid and potentially run out of water, just so I can continue subsidizing the poor? My life and well-being is more important to me

Most people you classify as rich actually work for their money.

 

[Archer]

The story about fitting meters to domestic boreholes and, I assume, wellpoints:

There is no limit (or charge currently) for the amount of water you draw – so the point is?.

It's actually a national law that governs this. Use more than 10kl per day out your borehole and you are meant to fit a meter to it. CoCT is taking things further, with less guidelines from what I can tell on what/when/how exactly everything is to work

 

[Geoff.D]

There is the nub. It is at the moment NOT nec. to register OR fit a meter to borehole or well point if you draw less than 10 kl of water a day!

My neighbour who has a borehole does not draw 10 kl out of his borehole in a month and he waters his garden with abanbon.

 

[xrapidx]

There is the nub. It is at the moment NOT nec. to register OR fit a meter to borehole or well point if you draw less than 10 kl of water a day!

My neighbour who has a borehole does not draw 10 kl out of his borehole and he waters his garden with abanbon.

Yeh - 10kl will take quite a bit of work.

I've been curious how much my wellpoint uses.... I know I can fill a 10L bucket in 45 seconds - but I think the hosepipe is the restriction.

 

[Scooby_Doo]

https://www.windguru.cz/91

So... Saturday?

Aaaaaaaand, its gone... Fug.

 

[Rouxenator]

Aaaaaaaand, its gone... Fug.

Aaaaaaaand, its back

 

[BTTB]

Differentiation between Well Points and Boreholes

Recently with the proposed by-laws from the City of Cape Town there is mention of both well points and boreholes.
People tend to think they are the same thing and refer in many instances to water drawing devices as just boreholes. Yes they both draw water from the earth, but do so differently and from different depth and the proposed legislation from local or national government is confusing as there are overlaps and I think they should be treated differently.
Both should be registered as how will we know what people are using, however boreholes should or could be levied and well points not and I will explain why further on.

My understanding simplistically of the two methods is that;
1)Well points capture surface water up to about 15 meters in depth or less and the pump is situated on top of the ground. Well points are much easier and cheaper to install. As example residents living on the Cape Flats can easily install well points as the Cape Flats Aquifer is just a couple of meters below the surface. In order for a pump positioned on the surface to work the depth of the pipe cannot be too deep as the pump will be sucking air, burn out as the pump will be too difficult to prime each time. Well point water is vlei or surface water and often smells like boiled eggs and carries high levels of sulphur and iron here on the Cape Flats and is is bit acidic and not suitable for drinking, however is fine for gardening purposes and more recently to flush toilets etc like you would with any other grey water. Quality of water can vary from one property to the next but generally the Cape Flats sand is a sponge of water that has been standing for a long time. All you are doing is rotating the surface water if you use it for gardening and in my opinion not a bad thing as rotating water will make it cleaner and the surface soil receptive to rain water if the ground is mulched properly with material, plants or both. DIY well point = R2500 pump plus some piping. Contractor well point = Up to around R8K.
2)Boreholes need to be sleeved out using machinery to drill a hole wide enough to allow a submersible pump to be extended down the sleeve. The cost of installing a borehole can be quite expensive running to over R100K per installation depending on depth. I think they charge per meter. People using boreholes probably live in areas other than the Cape Flats, alongside the mountainside or higher elevation properties, where there is a lack of surface water.
They will tap into often cleaner water from the mountain and secondary aquifers. Some properties I know of in Constantia and Tokai have had boreholes for decades and don't use Council water as their water is clear as it is running in streams under the ground from the mountain.

Either way, one needs to question whether we need to categorise well points and boreholes together for consumption use. Bit unfair to charge people who are rotating surface water using a well point. They would be essentially be paying for the usage of the same water over and over again. While the same can happen with Boreholes, the question is how much of that water will go through the house or be used in the pool.

Its a debate that authorities need to address. For simplistic purposes well points should be excluded from any tariff model in my opinion.

 

[Zoomzoom]

Its a debate that authorities need to address. For simplistic purposes well points should be excluded from any tariff model in my opinion.

Totally agree, however that is extremely unlikely to happen (money, it's a gas!) unless people kick up a huge fuss about it.

 

[xrapidx]

Or just don't declare them - I won't.