At least five years ago, when climate change was still denied by many, long-range modelers predicted as a specific detail of the world-wide phenomenon, a desiccation of the south-western regions of the African continent. That too, was the period when it became increasingly obvious that the Lesotho Highlands scheme phase II was seriously mis-managed politically and corruptly that its first water deliveries would be delayed for at least ten years. Phase I was already  nearing completion in 1994.

Had not the RDP been disrupted by Thabo Mbeki and the resulting looting of the state seamlessly taken over by Zuma, quite probably by now the country, or at least its main metropolitan  regions, would have been linked by a national water pipeline grid. 

The crisis is now so deep that a mass exodus of the more affluent of Cape Town could prick the property bubble there. Even a well-meaning but lightweight DA can but flounder, clutching at technological straws that still won't make it rain....