The easing of the stringent water restrictions will restore
international confidence in Cape Town as a destination for tourism and
investment, say business leaders.
But it will take hard work getting the message out there.
Tim Harris, CEO of Wesgro, the agency that promotes tourism, trade and
investment in Cape Town and the Western Cape, described the lowering
of the stringent water restrictions as an important step forward in
re-establishing trust and confidence in Cape Town as a destination for
business and tourism.
`We will continue to work hard to get Cape Town and the Western Cape
back on travellers` consideration lists with positive, collaborative
marketing efforts,` Harris said.
The lower water price that is to go with the lowering of restrictions
on October 1 would be a great help for struggling businesses,
particularly those who used water as a key input, Harris said.
The move was especially welcome during this period of reduced national
economic growth.
`We urge companies to continue to use water wisely and to continue the
great efforts in building water resilience.`
Investment
Harris said having a water-resilient city and province was essential
to ensure future investment and growth.
The water restrictions have been lowered for commercial and industrial
consumers from a 45% reduction to a 40% reduction.
Commercial and industrial water tariffs have come down 18% from R45.75
a kilolitre to R37.50 a kilolitre.
The City has increased personal water use from 50 litres a person a
day to 70 litres.
Janine Myburgh, president of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, said what was needed now was to get the message out
internationally to revive tourism and the film industry.
`Unfortunately, the drought and the Day Zero story made people look
elsewhere for holiday destinations and filming locations. They may
have liked the alternatives so we will have to fight hard to get the
business back,` Myburgh said.
The chamber thought it unlikely that the easing of the water
restrictions would result in Cape Town businesses or residents
returning to former high levels of water consumption.
`Businesses and residents have learned to reduce water use and they
have invested in water-saving devices, tanks and other measures. All
this puts us in a much better position to cope with dry years in the
future. This is the message we need to get out into the world,`
Myburgh said.
University of Cape Town academic Kevin Winter, who heads the
university`s Water Task Team, believes the easing of restrictions will
also send out a message internationally that the City had got to grips
with managing its water supplies, despite below-average rainfall this
winter.
`The message it sends is that we have water now, it is safe to invest
here, it is safe to travel here. Yes, water supplies are constrained,
but the easing of the restrictions show water is better managed and it
is safe to come back to Cape Town,` Winter said.
Storage capacity
Winter added when he travelled internationally, the question often
arose about the City of Cape Town`s water governance.
`Talking to engineers, scientists and others in water governance, I
find they don`t buy it as easily as we spin it. They say yes, they can
accept and understand rainfall variability, but very quickly they get
into a conversation about governance, about water management.
`No doubt everyone overseas admires the turnaround in the water
situation, but they ask questions about mismanagement, about how we
had been abusive of water in 2015 and the drought years.`
On Wednesday, the combined

level of Cape Town`s dams was 69.4% of
storage capacity. Theewaterskloof dam, by far the largest of the six
dams, broke through the halfway mark to 51.8% of capacity.
Winter believed it was right of the City to lower water restrictions
as the dams filled up.
`I think the City is being responsible, both to ease stress locally,
and to say to the people of Holland, Germany and elsewhere, it is now
okay to come here.`
Winter said UCT partnered with overseas universities who sent some of
their students here. This brought as much as R90m in funding to UCT.
However, there had been a marked drop in numbers, and Winter believes
the water situation played a part in the lower international student
numbers, along with student politics.
`The numbers are certainly nowhere near what we`ve seen before.`
Winter believes that there is no reason to fear that the easing of
restrictions would lead people to waste water.
`Let`s test it out. We`ve got enough water to get us through the
summer to 2019, to the next rainy season, and we`ve got numbers that
the public can see every day. And if at the end of October we see
overusage, we can go back.`
But not all agree.
Environmentalist Patrick Dowling, whose household of four have reduced
their water consumption to six kilolitres a month, believes many may
interpret the easing of water restrictions as a signal to go back to
their bad old ways.
As part of the easing of restrictions, the City has set a new overall
water usage target of 500 million litres (Ml) a day from October 1, in
place of the current 450 million litres a day.
Dowling points out that Cape Town consumers have never once met the
450 million litre a day target.
Cape Town`s weekly consumption has been consistently more than 500
million litres a day, except for the weeks of May 7 (492Ml); June 2
(481Ml) July 16 (494Ml) and July 30 (498Ml).
Last week`s consumption was 526Ml a day.
`It`s a bad idea. As I understand it, there was a lot of lobbying of
the City by the hospitality industry, from business and industry, to
ease the water restrictions. And of course the City has its own
concerns about loss of revenue from lower water sales.
`The climate change science is saying there is a general trend to a
hotter, drier Cape Town and province, and that we could go down from
an average of 600mm of rain a year to 350mm. So the precautionary
principle should be applied. Yes, thanks for the rain, but also take
note that this winter`s rainfall has not been phenomenal at all,`
Dowling said.
Those people who had invested in rainwater tanks, greywater systems
and boreholes, would continue to use these, and so would not go back
to their high consumption.
`But for the rest, will they really still take short showers, and
flush with grey water?`
Taryn Pereira of the Environmental Monitoring Group believes the
easing of restrictions was a good move. She said 70 litres a person a
day was still a strict measure.
`People know the dams are filling up, they see the figures, and I
think if the City had not done it, there might be many people who
would say: `What the hell`s going on? Rain is falling, dams are
filling, you surely don`t expect us to stay with the same restrictions
do you?`
`It would have been a real lack of trust in the City if there were no
easing up,` Pereira said V.2458

All 30 bank branches offering Smart ID cards and passport renewals Hanno Labuschagne14 May 2024 All 30 bank branches offering Smart ID cards and passport renewals Over half the bank branches that support Smart ID card issuing and passport renewals are in Gauteng. In addition, more than 83% of the branches are in the three most populous provinces in South Africa, while only about 56.3% of the country’s population lives in these provinces. Many people will have to travel far to use one of these branches instead of a regular, problem-ridden Home Affairs office to get a new ID or passport. Thirty bank branches support the eHomeAffairs system introduced by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) in 2016. V.5355
Click here for full article

The Constitutional Court recently ruled that children born in South Africa to foreign parents qualify for South African citizenship in terms of Section 2 of the South African Citizenship Act. That is, if you were born in South Africa to foreign parents who have not been admitted as permanent residents, you qualify to apply for South African citizenship upon becoming a major if your birth was registered and if you have lived here all your life, irrespective of the date of your birth and you have not accepted the nationality of another country. The judgment also reduced the term for applying for citizenship by holders of permanent residence from 5 years to 10 years by declaring Regulation 3(2)(a) of the Citizenship Act Regulations unconstitutional. V.5357
Click here for full article

Turkey Visa for South African Citizens In 2013, the e Visa program was launched by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, enabling citizens of more than 100 countries, such as South Africa, to request a Turkish visa through the internet. Therefore, South African tourists favor Turkey as a destination. South African citizens are no longer required to visit the Turkish embassy in person as they can now conveniently apply for their e-visa online. V.5348
Click here for full article

The Australian High Court passed a judgement on Friday that dismissed an Iranian asylum seeker’s plea to be released from immigration detention and enter the country. The Iranian asylum seeker, applicant ASF-17, applied to the Federal Court of Australia for a writ of habeas corpus in 2023 on the basis that his continuing detention exceeded the constitutional limitation identified in the orders of NZYQ v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs released the week prior. The applicant has been refusing to cooperate with the process of being removed from Australia to Iran since 2018, arguing that he would be at risk of persecution for his sexual orientation and religious beliefs. V.5349
Click here for full article

Home Affairs officials are “selling South Africa to foreign nationals” out of greed, says Minister Aaron Motsoaledi. In an exclusive interview with The Witness on Thursday, Motsoaledi said 182 department officials were dismissed for fraud and corruption between 2018 and 2024. Among those dismissed was a chief director who was implicated in assisting a foreign national in getting a permanent residence permit in the country, at a fee. Those who bear the brunt of the corruption are mostly drug addicts, whose personal information is used by Home Affairs officials to create fake IDs and passports for foreigners. V.5350
Click here for full article

Visa waivers for travellers from Kenya and Ghana have catalysed a remarkable 15.4% increase in international tourist numbers to South Africa. File picture: Tracey Adams/ Independent Newspapers South Africa`s tourism sector is experiencing a renaissance fuelled by the recent removal of visa requirements for travellers from select African countries. The latest data from Statistics South Africa showed a remarkable surge in international arrivals, signalling a promising trajectory for the industry. V.5354
Click here for full article

The City of Cape Town has called on the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) to address the visa system crisis and confusion over remote work visas. James Vos, the City’s Mayco member for economic growth, says the department ‘shot itself in the foot’ with the premature gazetting and withdrawal of regulations. ‘On 28 March, the DHA published the amended immigration regulations. This, however, was a day before the closing date of the public comment period. And then, on 12 April, the minister issued a notice withdrawing the 28 March amendments.’ As reported by BusinessTech, the regulations replaced the critical skills list with a new points-based system and introduced the remote work visa category. V.5345
Click here for full article

The City of Cape Town has slammed the Department of Home Affairs for creating confusion and continuing to score “infuriating” own goals in launching remote work visas in the country. Mayoral committee member for economic growth, James Vos, said that the last month has seen the department shoot itself in the foot with the premature gazetting and subsequent withdrawal of regulations that would create this category of visa. “On 28 March, the DHA published the amended immigration regulations. This, however, was a day before the closing date of the public comment period. And then, on 12 April, the minister issued a notice withdrawing the 28 March amendments,” Vos said. V.5346
Click here for full article

Recently settled case in the Labour Court demonstrated that excluding a job applicant because of their criminal record is only lawful when the requirements of that job explicitly outline and justify the need for a clean criminal record. However, legal experts say that the court’s decision ultimately delinked trust and honesty from the inherent requirements of a job, which was “concerning.” ENS Africa’s Nils Braatvedt, Kim Vova, and Lutho Zono examined the background, outcome, and subsequent analysis of the recent court ruling in O’Connor v LexisNexis. V.5347
Click here for full article

The City of Cape Town has slammed the Department of Home Affairs for creating confusion and continuing to score “infuriating” own goals in launching remote work visas in the country. Mayoral committee member for economic growth, James Vos, said that the last month has seen the department shoot itself in the foot with the premature gazetting-and subsequent withdrawal-of regulations that would create this category of visa. V.5343
Click here for full article