LETTER | Demand better services — at the ballot box

There are moments in politics when a single statement captures the full distance between the government and the governed. Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi’s remarks to residents of the City of Johannesburg that when there is no water, he simply goes to a hotel to bathe is one such moment. For communities that have gone days without running water, that statement is not just tone deaf, it is insulting.

Across the City of Johannesburg, families have been forced to wake up at dawn to queue for water tankers. Mothers ration what little water they can store for cooking and basic hygiene. Water is not a luxury, it is a constitutional right and a basic human necessity.

Leadership, especially in a crisis, demands empathy and accountability. It demands that those in power feel the discomfort of the people they serve, not escape it. When a premier says he goes to a hotel to bathe, he unintentionally exposes the deeper problem — a governing party that has options ordinary citizens do not.