In December 2017, the Cape Argus reported that the Western Cape provincial government had shifted R95 million to avert "Day Zero" during the province's worst drought since 1906. Items included R10 million for rural boreholes, R2 million for water tanks and R2.5 million for a resilience project. ANC provincial legislator Richard Dyantyi argued that the desalination plants under construction at the V&A Waterfront would add only 2,000 m³/d, while planned seawater plants at Gordon's Bay and Table Bay Harbour, totalling 200,000 m³/d, had no known completion date.
The report showed that the itemised funds in late 2017 went to boreholes, tanks and agriculture, while large-scale seawater desalination still lacked a timeline according to the opposition.
Source: Cape Argus (Kopie im Webarchiv)