Countdown to (Day) Zero

And as the water runs over my face and into my mouth, I realise that one day this will be coming from a desalination plant. Extracted from the ocean with a possible dose of residual kak. 

You’d be surprised at the speed of thought during a 90-minute shower.

***

Day Zero looms over Cape Town like a nuclear strike threat from North Korea.  And just like Kim Jung-un, Provincial Government warn that it’s imminent.

Water is becoming a scarce commodity. With only 50 litres of water per person a day, you’re left with a choice between hydration and hygiene, or drinking your bath water. A bottle of sparkling Valpre is the new bubbly. If you smaak a cider, the lemon flavoured Aquelle is lekker.

We are now down to two one-and-a-half -minute showers and the rest of the week you may take a ‘cowboy splush’ - you know; tits, pits and naughty bits. Household fights are now about who gets to kak first, laaste man trek die chain. Everyone’s bowel movements are now in sync, and hopefully not in sink.

So why has National Government done fokkol to assist the situation in Cape Town? The David Icke in me says that it’s because the DA is in charge.  And for a long time Zuma has been trying to get those sticky fingers on the Western Cape, hinting at witch craft and ghosts voting for the DA.

And trouble is brewing in the party. The alliances aren’t democratic behind the scenes ne. Airing their dirty laundry in the midst of a ‘disaster’ - as Helen is now so quick to call it. The same Helen Zille whose home allegedly exceeded the daily consumption limit by over 200 litres per person not too long ago and then claimed she has a natural spring running under her house.  Er.

What I can’t wrap my unwashed head around is the lack of urgency.  We have been receiving drought threats since 2016 – there was more than enough time to put contingency plans in place or execute the plans they supposedly had in place.

Ma nee, hulle vriet mos die land se geld op. Cape Town is in a critical but stable condition. And now we are just stably fucked.

But it’s too late to blame government. Too late to blame grown people in Parkwood for filling plastic pools for the whole Blackbird Avenue to come splash in. Too late to blame parents in Bonteheuwel for allowing their kids to still play with water guns and water balloons. Or the aunty around the corner who still uses her hose pipe.

The world might be set to end in June, but Armageddon comes for the Western Cape on April 12th.

And with people like the EFF around, we are definitely in for anarchy and chaos. This time they will be throwing shit around because you can’t flush it.

photo: EWN

Somewhere on the Cape Flats a taanie shouts to her teenage son:

“Hou op kak sing en maak kla, da isi water ini land nie,”

Oh, but there is. The rest of the country is flooded with thunder storms and heavy rain – because the ANC is in power.  And you didn’t even need to pay me R500 000 to tell you that.

On a serious note, we should be saving water regardless of a drought or an empty dam or government’s negligence.  There are plenty of tips around for you.  Helen Moffet has been saving, collecting, compiling so that we don’t have to:  1001 Water tips

The Violence Continues: Killing the Future (Part 1)

My last post about violence was mainly based on gangsterism. I didn’t go into a lot of detail because that post was initially a part of a bigger piece that all seemed a bit too much like my afro when the South Easter gets a hold of it, deumeka.

Cape Town is the 13th most violent city in the WORLD with places like Nelson Mandela Bay and Durban ranking 43rd and 50th respectively. What bothers me the most is how this affects our children.  They are not only constantly surrounded by it but are most often the victims of violence. Our children are being killed every day. Innocent lives stripped away without a second thought. They are supposed to be the future, the tomorrow of this country but what kind of future is there for South Africa when 900 children were killed between 2015 and 2016 alone? Over the past decade almost 10 000 children have been murdered.

There is nowhere safe, they are not protected. If we don’t find them dumped in plastic bags, sewerage pipes or toilets, we find them raped and mutilated in an open field or shallow grave. Their bodies are burnt with tyres. They are strangled or their throats are slit. They are disemboweled. They are stuffed in fridges. Branches get shoved down their throats.

Sends a chill down your spine doesn't it? You picture that happen to a child. YOUR child. You shudder at the mere thought.

***

I am honestly beyond the point where we blame drugs and poverty for the violence in the country. That’s a lame excuse -and maybe because I don’t get it.  Unemployed? So is half of our working age. But why do some people find that their desperation is worth hurting others?

I am a believer in being conscious – and I don’t just mean ‘awake’. I mean CONSCIOUS.

No matter how drunk you are or how high you are at SOME point, you know what you are doing. You somehow know how to find yourself home and passed out on your bed dik gesuip. You somehow know how to drive a car, you somehow know how to lure, rape and kill a child. You are in your right mind. You need to take some kind of responsibility.  If you have too much of a drug, you overdose. And although your judgment is compromised, it doesn't mean that you don’t know what are you are doing is wrong.

Besides, most people are perfectly sober when they kill a defenseless child.  Mortimer Saunders was only tired when he fed rat poison to Courtney Pietersen.  The ex-boyfriend of Kaithlyn Wilson’s mother was definitely sober when he killed her out of spite.  What about Jeremiah Ruiters? Was Ameeruddien Peters high or drunk when he raped the 18 month old after beating and stabbing him?

Then I am trying to wrap my ahead the unemployment thing. Devil’s work for idle hands? Are you that bored? Don’t get me wrong. I know what it is like to be broke and unemployed – at the same time. But how does killing a child that is unable to fight back make you feel better about your situation? How does it SOLVE your problem?

If the temporary high of raping and killing children is what unemployed people are going to be chasing then we will soon have a lot of serial killers on our hands.

I cringe every time my daughter leaves the house. I sit at work and wonder if she is safe, hope that she is safe, pray that she is safe. 

But is it enough?

Is our outrage enough? Are we doing enough?

We say ‘enough’ is ‘enough’ – but is it?

Enough of the future. 


It’s dying.