“When acute water scarcity hits, people have a choice.
“I am speaking to people who own residential complexes in Cape Town.
“We saw with the electricity crisis that South Africa missed out on a lot of growth.
A water crisis to me is a few times worse.
IT, which is a big industry in Cape Town, could move.
But if people queue for five months it would really impact.
Fruit that we export from the Cape will also be impacted, and this will impact our growth.
“Tourism to South Africa will be impacted.
“In the short term, south-western parts of the Western Cape, including Cape Town, are expected to remain rain-free for the remainder of this and next week.” Saws reminded that most rain in the Western Cape province falls during winter months.
“Since cold fronts form part of a variable eastward propagating wave pattern of air flow over the Southern Ocean, the frequency of the cross-continental passage of cold fronts across the Western Cape province is difficult to predict at a seasonal time range, and more research is required into weather patterns.”