The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) says it’s consulting with its lawyers on Tuesday after the City of Cape Town failed to meet last Friday’s deadline to respond to OUTA’s demand to scrap the proposed drought levy.

The levy will be based on property value rather than water consumption. The city, which moved onto Level Six water restrictions on Monday, plans to use this revenue to fund its water augmentation schemes.

Outa portfolio manager for water, Julius Kleynhans, says they’re targeting the national government rather than the city.

“We want the city to start holding the national to account so that the National Department of Water and Sanitation provides the water, not the city. It’s not the city’s constitutional obligation to do that and we don’t want to see the Constitution being changed now all of a sudden on the city’s terms,” says Kleynhans.

Meanwhile, Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille has thanked all those, including tourists to the city, who’ve been trying to save water.

“First of all I would like to thank all of those super water savers. There are many people in Cape Town who are adhering to the water restrictions. While we are appealing to residents to save water, the city is doing also everything in our power to augment our water resources in the city and there are many augmentation schemes that the city is busy with to bring on that additional water,” says De Lille.