Sandton Showers and Tanker Politics Expose ANC Disconnect

In politics, symbolism often lands harder than policy, and this week in Johannesburg the symbolism was devastating.

As residents across the city queued for water tankers and have endured dry taps for days or even weeks, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi of the African National Congress (ANC) told reporters on Wednesday evening that when his own water ran out he “had to go to a Sandton hotel” to bathe before official commitments. He added that there was “no special water” for leaders and that his family “suffer[s] the same pain” as everyone else.

Technically, he may be correct. There is no secret pipe running to political homes. But access in a modern city is not only about pipes. It is about options. Having to go to a hotel in Sandton to shower is an inconvenience for a premier. For a pensioner, a single mother, or an informal trader, it is a fantasy. When residents are rationing bottled water and waiting for water tankers, a hotel shower is not shared suffering. It is a different universe.

The uproar was immediate. The Gauteng Provincial Government issued a formal apology, saying the Premier regretted any “misunderstanding or offence.” Lesufi reposted it with the caption, “My sincerest apology no harm intended.”

And this was not an isolated perception problem. In January this year, in the ANC-led Knysna municipality, residents publicly accused the ruling coalition of diverting municipal water tankers to private homes of politically connected individuals during their own water crisis.

In April 2022, during the KwaZulu-Natal floods, then-Premier Sihle Zikalala of the ANC was filmed receiving a municipal water tanker at his private residence in La Mercy, an upmarket suburb in Durban. The video spread rapidly. Zikalala later apologised, saying it “will never happen again,” and explained that the tanker had serviced the area before stopping at his home.

Go back to 2021, when the ANC government initially signalled that ministers and senior officials would become eligible for Covid vaccinations ahead of the broader public schedule. The plan was reversed after backlash, but the instinct was revealing. ANC politicians serve themselves ahead of the people they are supposed to govern.

Further back still, during the 2020 lockdown, multiple ANC councillors across the country were accused of diverting food parcels meant for vulnerable households.

Taken together, these episodes sketch a pattern. In theory, all animals are equal. In practice, those coloured in Green, Gold, and Black seem better positioned to find a working shower.