The beleaguered N2 Gateway housing project in Cape Town has been dealt a further financial blow by the discovery that 705 units comprising the project’s first phase have been built on a 50-year flood plain. The city has had to fork out a further R10-million to build a culvert to divert possible flood waters.

South Africans pay more for gas than consumers in most parts of the world, and Capetonians are essentially subsidising Eskom’s inability to supply electricity in the region. And while Eskom’s ”Turn on to Gas” campaign in the Western Cape might provide a short-term solution to the winter energy crunch, in the longer run, consumers will fork out more for energy.