ANC demands that DA removes Lesufi shower billboard

A billboard mocking Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s habit of checking into hotels during water cuts is headed for a court showdown.

Two days after the ad went up, the ANC wrote to the DA saying the billboard tarnishes the party’s image and that it does not have permission to use an AI-generated image of Lesufi having a shower while grinning.

“It is an unauthorised and demeaning use of the image of the Gauteng Premier that has been digitally manipulated to create [the] impression that he has co-operated with the Democratic Alliance to assist them to satirise his own political party,” said attorney Mongezi Ntanga of Ntange Nkuhlu Attorneys in a letter on 5 March.

He gave the party 12 hours from receipt of the letter to remove not only the billboard but also matching social media posts.

Ntanga said the court action would be brought in terms of the Electoral Act’s Electoral Code of Conduct. However, the code is only applicable once an election has been called — the local government election date has not been set.

Johannesburg hit its fifth infrastructural Day Zero in three years in February. On 11 February, while addressing a briefing, Lesufi said “…in some instances I had to go to a certain hotel so that I could bathe and go to my commitments”.

That caused a flood of opprobrium, and he was showered with criticism so fierce that he apologised: “No one is immune to the frustration and disruption caused by water shortages, and I regret any impression that suggested otherwise.”

Smelling blood (or water in this instance), the DA wasted little time in capitalising, publishing a huge billboard it unveiled with great fanfare on Tuesday, March 3.

It’s a crude but cutting piece of political communication that has sparked huge debate on and off social media. The billboard is divided into two squares: the left, in ANC colours, shows Lesufi in premier get-up having a shower — an image which also raises the spectre of the party’s former president known by the shower symbol.

The right-hand side is in DA blue and reads “Vote DA to put water in your taps”. In its simplicity, it feels like the Tim Bell ad that propelled Margaret Thatcher into Downing Street. Featuring images of a long dole queue, that ad said simply: “Labour isn’t Working”.

The legal threat is a gift to the DA mayoral candidate Helen Zille, who said: “We understand that the truth hurts. However, the DA will not be meeting the ANC’s 12-hour deadline to remove our billboard.”

The saga could well end up in court, testing the limits of free political expression.

“The ANC cannot cite any legal reason as to why the billboard should be removed. Instead, it suggests that the image is demeaning to Lesufi and tarnishes his reputation. We would like to reassure the ANC that there is nothing that the DA can do to tarnish Mr Lesufi’s reputation more than he has done already,” said Zille.

ANC Gauteng spokesperson Mzi Khumalo said, “At a time when residents are understandably frustrated by intermittent water supply disruptions largely caused by ageing infrastructure, rising demand and bulk supply constraints, the DA has chosen theatrics over solutions.

“The DA’s attempt to reduce a complex infrastructure challenge to a marketing gimmick is not only misleading but deeply insensitive to residents who expect mature leadership, not campaign stunts and gimmicks.”

Political flashpoint

According to a Murmur Intelligence report for Daily Maverick, “The controversy surrounding Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s remarks about bathing at a hotel during Johannesburg’s water crisis generated roughly 25,000 posts on X, rapidly evolving into a high-visibility political flashpoint.

“While the volume appears substantial, closer examination of the network structure and leading accounts suggests that a relatively small cluster of highly influential political influencers drove the initial momentum of the conversation, raising questions about how representative the earliest activity was of organic public sentiment.”

The ability to generate AI images saw WhatsApp groups and social media platforms bombarded with AI images of Lesufi in hotels, and in many, dressed as Marie Antoinette, who famously said of the masses: “Let them eat cake.”

The charts from Murmur show social media sentiment, the biggest influencers and also some of the images generated.

It has been almost a month since the State of the Nation Address, when President Cyril Ramaphosa promised swift action on Johannesburg’s water crisis. There are some improvements, but an analysis of the Water Crisis Committee group shows the system is still in deep crisis. DM