The ANC in Tshwane has slammed the DA for putting up a billboard in Pretoria with the message 'ANC showers in hotels', saying it is misleading.
Image: Oupa Mokoena / Independent Newspapers
The ANC in Tshwane has hit out at the DA for putting up a billboard in Pretoria with the message 'ANC showers in hotels', labelling it a desperate election stunt.
The ANC claimed the billboard is misleading by suggesting Tshwane and Gauteng residents face a water crisis.
Tshwane ANC regional secretary George Matjila said: "The DA has been spreading lies, including that the city’s finances are in a state of disrepair and that there's service delivery challenge, in particular water shortages, that it deliberately exaggerates."
He described the DA's latest claim of a water crisis in parts of Tshwane as a "false claim", saying the ANC-led government is addressing water shortages and service delivery issues largely created by the DA's previous eight-year tenure.
He slammed the DA's past administration, saying it was marked by racialised service delivery, neglected infrastructure, and financial mismanagement that led to huge debts, poor audit reports, and collapsed services, especially in townships.
During the billboard's unveiling, Tshwane DA mayoral candidate Cilliers Brink said: "We are in a year where the DA and our coalition partners were removed from power. Spending on water tankers to areas that should have water in their taps has increased from less than R200 million to more than a billion rand. We are in the same period of time where water losses have shot up from 32% to 40% in one year. The choice of this political leadership is to give people water, not in their taps but in tankers."
Matjila stated that water tankers were actually introduced by the DA and its partners, and the ANC-led government is working to reduce and eventually stop using them.
"Typical of the unethical racist DA, the party has embarked on an underhanded tactic to try and conflate issues affecting the City of Tshwane with those of the City of Joburg, while creatively drawing in the Gauteng provincial government in a desperate bid to paint a picture of failure where Africans govern," he said.
According to him, the DA's latest move — unveiling a Pretoria billboard — is a desperate attempt to boost its failing election campaign, and it is laughable.
The DA billboard took a swipe at Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi, showing him showering in formal attire, implying that he is out of touch with the people's daily struggles.
Lesufi, addressing the media last month amid the water shortage, commented: "We also go through (the same thing), I mean, in some instances I have to go to a certain hotel so that I have to go to my commitment. We also go through the same inconvenience like any other person; there is no special water or a special pipe that is designed to save these other people and not save these other people."
He apologised "for any misunderstanding or offence caused" by his comments, saying they "may have been interpreted" as implying water challenges affect people differently based on social status.
DA Joburg mayoral candidate Helen Zille criticised the ANC leadership for losing touch with the people on the ground, saying: "When people have been out of water for weeks and months, Panyaza Lesufi thinks there is no problem, saying 'what are you fussing about? I just go to a hotel'. He has completely lost touch with the reality of everybody's lives."