Shooting from the lip

“And they remember the message for longer.”

Okay, so how do we reach simplicity – we discussed.

The chief executive said: “Let me tell you a story.

“There was a woman who toured the whole of India. On her travels she came across some incredible, life-like wooden carvings of elephants.

“She was amazed and asked the sculptor: ‘How do you manage to create wooden animals that are so incredibly life-like?’

“The sculptor answered: ‘It’s easy. I start with a large block of wood. And then I chip away everything that’s not the elephant’.”

The Italian sculptor Michelangelo, said it too half a millennium ago: “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” Ah. So what simple truths can we find “to set Cape Town free” from this crisis? Question: Will we reach Day Zero? Answer: As this crisis has unfolded, it has become increasingly surreal.

Because: Greater Cape Town is indeed staring down the barrel at a looming catastrophe.

Which is entirely avoidable. Can one say that loudly enough?

Can Michelangelo’s angels please boom those words down from the heavens? This crisis is entirely avoidable. Isn’t that a profoundly beautiful truth? An extraordinary get-out-of-jail-free card? Put differently: Greater Cape Town is facing a nightmare. Which could become real. Unless we wake up. It’s our choice. It’s in our hands. I remember twice personally hearing Nelson Mandela say these words: “It’s in your hands”.

Aat the 46664 mega-concert at Green Point, 2003.

And then again at Hyde Park, London, in 2008. He was passing the baton – to us. It was our turn to lead our own future. We active citizens can lead our own future, again, today:

Use a maximum of 50 litres, per person, per day. For 150 days, until mid-year, June 30. And we can avoid Day Zero. It’s that simple. 50-for-150.