POLITRICKING | Joburg Mayor Dada Morero defends bomb squad and eyes ANC regional power play

Joburg Mayor Dada Morero’s idea, of launching a “bomb squad” in the city, to help manage some of the key backlogs that have further cemented the rot which has befallen South Africa’s economic hub has not been well received.

Its legal standing has been questioned by several parties in the city, including those who form part of his coalition and serve in his executive.

Just last week Kenny Kunene, transport MMC and current acting Mayor described the structure, which is said to be made up of volunteers, as a rogue unit operating in wards and seeking access to classified information, all which Morero denies.

Morero, who’s currently in Spain attending the 4^th international conference on financing for development, joined EWN’s Politricking with Tshidi Madia, in which he defended his bomb squad and insisted it wasn’t a decision he made without consulting both his executive and the ANC’s coalition partners.

“I don’t just wake up and boom… this thing was as a result of a turnaround plan,” said Morero.

The claims that he’d isolated his partners extends beyond the bomb squad, which is led by ANC Veterans’ President Snuki Zikalala, but it was also with his State of the City Address, which announced the plan, as well as his proposal to rotate mayoral committee members.

But Morero insisted he didn’t operate as a lone ranger.

In terms of the rotation of the mayoral committee a process of consultation will still happen he argued.

“But the same mayoral committee members throughout the term, they rotate senior managers in their departments, so there is nothing untoward,” he said.

Morero said the rotation is aimed at strengthening the executive, pairing leaders with the right departments to maximise on output.

The Joburg mayor in that contentious SOCA listed at least 12 priorities for his government, with three core priorities, which include law enforcement and crime prevention, financial sustainability and service delivery, all of which residents believe can no longer be achieved, more so on his watch, but he believes the opposite is true, but that it would take partnerships in order to achieve this.

“We can't do it alone as government, and we can't do it alone as the city of Johannesburg. We require the district development model by bringing province and national the decay happened over a long period of time,” said Morero.

The rot, is seeing an interesting contest shaping up ahead of the 2026 local government elections, including DA federal council chairperson and former Western Cape Premier Helen Zille putting her hand up to try rescue Johannesburg.

This has been largely criticised by those aligned to the ANC, claiming there is no need for a Messiah, but it’s also been seen as an admission of just how bad the deterioration in the city has become.

“Of what the DA does, we will see them there,” he said.

“If the DA believes that they can turn it around, they were here in 2016… and we need to be honest to the residents of Johannesburg. The bulk of the collapse that we see and the deterioration that you see started in 2016 at the point where Parks Tau had lost power,” he added.

All of this without too much reflection on the role the ANC has played in failing to secure the majority or allow for further rot while in charge, even under the coalition agreements.

There have been suggestions that Tau, now Trade, Industry and Competition and the minister the last ANC mayor, before coalitions set in, should return to the city, campaign based on his track record.

“I don’t think Parks is coming back.”

“The ANC has a pool of leaders in the region, who have the right skills and attitude, who the ANC will deploy to contest… we are not scared, we will bring the best candidate to contest,” he continued.

But he recognised that it might not be him.

The ANC’s elections machinery is yet to kick in, when it does, it’ll be up to its most senior members to select a mayoral candidate to contest across the metros.

Since its loss in 2016, the ANC’s been unable to regain lost support, with several polls now predicting the next election will be the toughest one yet for the former liberation movement.

Morero is also facing an uphill battle in the party, in the region, this as the ANC in Johannesburg prepares for a conference, in which a younger generation is yearning to take over the reins.

He confirmed that he was interested in running as regional chairperson once again, as he shut down rumours that he had ambitions of becoming the provincial secretary in Gauteng, when the party in the province holds its internal contest.

Morero, who’s also been thought of as someone desperate to occupy both the regional chair and mayoral chain seems to be at peace with the outcome that will follow the ANC regional conference, which might include an end to his already short stint as mayor.

“I'm not worried at all, if it comes that I don't make it as the chair, and the next regional executive committee says, ‘Hey, bro, we want you to vacate the position’. I have no issue with that. It's the ANC, because this is not my chair. It's not my position. It's a position that belongs to the ANC,” he said.