It's serious. I'd follow the news here for accurate information about upcoming issues:
http://www.capetown.gov.za/media-and...20restrictions

There's an interesting article here:
https://www.thesouthafrican.com/cape...from-day-zero/
about potential areas that might be exempt from zero-day restrictions. But, it reads as if much of it is up in the air.

I'm no water (or electricity) distribution expert, but I find the water-shedding concept described in the article to be quite interesting.