{
  "id": 4456552,
  "title": "Lesufi slams DA for ‘opportunistic’ water billboard",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/30/lesufi-slams-da-for-opportunistic-water-billboard",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-30T14:53:31.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Citizen",
    "slug": "the-citizen",
    "url": "https://www.citizen.co.za/news/lesufi-slams-da-for-opportunistic-water-billboard/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has criticized the Democratic Alliance (DA) for what he claims is an \"opportunistic\" billboard in Hammanskraal. The billboard blasts the ANC and ActionSA for spending R777 million on water tankers in Tshwane in a single year. Lesufi claims the DA is the cause of the water crisis, stating that they originally appointed the water tanker companies when they ran the City of Tshwane. He asserts that the current water tankers, which are being used for Gauteng, were owned by the city. Lesufi says the DA's billboard is a \"stunt\" used because it has \"run out of ideas.\" The DA's mayoral candidate, Cilliers Brink, responded by accusing Lesufi of blaming the current administration for a problem they created. Brink claims a plant that would have supplied clean drinking water to Hammanskraal was almost completed when his party was running Tshwane but was left incomplete by the ANC and ActionSA.",
  "summary": "DA's Cilliers Brink hits back by accusing ANC of protecting 'water mafia'",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}