Morero denies paying influencers to promote him and the City of Joburg

JOHANNESBURG - City of Joburg Mayor Dada Morero has denied paying influencers to promote both him and the city on various social media platforms.

Last week, influencer accounts on X shared hundreds of posts praising Morero, using the #joburgservicedelivery.

This sparked public outrage, with many questioning why the city would pay influencers to amplify Moreno’s work.

Morero addressed the matter during a media briefing on Wednesday.

#joburgservicedelivery was all over X over the past week, with several influencer accounts praising Morero for what they termed stellar service delivery.

Some of the tweets spoke about how Morero was turning the city around, while others expressed hope in his leadership.

But Morero said he did not know who paid the influencers.

"There has never been an instruction for me around the issue of influencers but what I can assure the residents is that this was never done by my office."

Morero said the city had its own ways of communicating with its residents.

"We do not need any form of influence to communicate the work that we are doing."

Morero said that an internal probe was carried out which found no evidence of anyone hiring the influencers.