Dada Morero is still the Johannesburg mayor after a motion of no confidence was deferred for another day.
X/City of Johannesburg
- Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero survived a motion of no confidence after it was deferred by Speaker Margaret Arnolds.
- Arnolds cited the need for advice on the request for a secret ballot, despite having seen it two weeks ago.
- Tensions within the ANC and the GLU coalition have grown since Loyiso Masuku replaced Morero as ANC Greater Johannesburg chair in December.
Johannesburg executive mayor, Dada Morero, has survived another day after the motion of no confidence in him was deferred.
The motion was brought by the Al Jama-ah party and seconded by the UDM on 15 January. It was requested that the vote be conducted by secret ballot.
Speaker Margaret Arnolds said that, in light of the request to hold a secret ballot, all motions would be deferred so she could seek advice.
This is despite her receiving the request on 16 January, a day after the motion was sent.
She did not say when they would be held.
READ | Secret ballot, divided loyalties: Odds stacked against Joburg mayor
According to the motion, the “Mayor failed to provide decisive leadership and to deliver on the urgent service delivery needs of the residents”, and, “under his tenure, the City has experienced persistent governance instability, lack of accountability, and worsening service delivery challenges, which have eroded public trust and compromised the mandate of this Council to serve the people effectively”.
Morero officially lost favour in his own party on 5 December when the ANC voted for the Johannesburg Finance MMC Loyiso Masuku, as the party’s Greater Johannesburg chair, a position Morero formerly held.
In doing so, the party in the City split its power (and the faith of its councillors) between the two.
Since August last year, some parties within the Government of Local Unity (GLU), the leading coalition comprising the ANC, EFF, PA, and minority parties, have expressed their displeasure with the mayor.
This followed calls from minority party members for higher positions within the city leadership.
In November, Al Jama-ah requested the first motion against the mayor; they withdrew it at the 11th hour during the 2 December council meeting after a meeting with ANC national and provincial leadership the night before.
News24 understands that a similar meeting took place on Wednesday night, ahead of the motion on Thursday, but the minority parties could not be swayed.
READ | Greater Joburg ANC defends conference integrity amid ballot paper scandal
But whatever was said in the “heated” GLU caucus meeting did the trick.
Before the motion, the council voted in a deputy mayor despite the city’s lack of funding and the potential of the office to cost millions.
Councillors believe this was the compromise and may allow both Morero and Masuku to hold mayoral positions.
Meanwhile, in his opening address to the council on Thursday, Morero did not speak about his upcoming motion; instead, he used the platform to greet residents in the new year and thank several people.
Addressing residents, he said:
This year is a special year. It is an election year, and we should not politicise service delivery.
“I would like to thank my fellow councillors and the people of Johannesburg for coming together and making G20 a success. History will show that Johannesburg was indeed the home of the African G20,” he said.
He thanked President Cyril Ramaphosa for entrusting the Johannesburg government with hosting the G20.
He also used the speech to speak about some of the recent projects he had been involved in.
“The people of Johannesburg have been telling us…something is happening [in] Johannesburg. They are free to walk in the inner city with their phones. The Joburg crime is slowly disappearing; and there is law and order in the City,” he said.
He thanked the Mayoral High Impact Service Delivery Programme and the Bomb Squad, which he said was “appreciated by society”.
The CEO-City Cleanup partnership, the District Development Model, the national and provincial government, “business, community and media all came together to clean Johannesburg.”
