Lesufi’s hotel suggestion could haunt ANC

2026-02-13 - 05:16

No surprise that Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi – pop-up crisis visit and insightful (or inciteful) sound bite specialist – has become the latest to add to the ANC’s collection of “shoot yourself in the foot” public comments. He joins “I didn’t join the struggle to be poor” (ANC stalwart Smuts Ngonyama) and “The feature was a ‘fire pool’ to be used as a water reservoir for fire-fighting should any of the thatched buildings in the compound go up in flames” (ex-public works minister Thulas Nxesi). Lesufi’s comments that Joburg residents could, like him, “go to a hotel” to have a bath or shower if they have no water went down like a lead balloon. Even though he hastily apologised, he was quickly labelled as a modern-day Marie Antoinette who famously, when told the French underclass had no bread, said: “Let them eat cake.” The ANC rulers have about as much awareness of the suffering of ordinary South Africans as did the queen of France in 1789. They are insulated from crime in their VIP blue light convoys and have plenty of electricity in their taxpayer-subsidised residences – although reports suggest that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s residence in Sandton had been affected by the water outages. ALSO READ: ANC welcomes Lesufi’s apology over ‘hotel bath’ comments amid water crisis Whether that will garner him any sympathy, however, is doubtful. The authorities – from Rand Water to Joburg Water to provincial government – continue to lie that it is increased consumption which caused the crisis. A Rand Water spokesperson failed to mention the elephant in the room – decaying infrastructure that sees a large proportion of potable water go to waste daily. While it is true that the water problem has become more visible now that it has started hitting wealthier suburbs, anger against the ANC cuts across demographic lines. And that could be bad news for the party at the upcoming local government polls.