Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero. (X)
Embattled Joburg mayor Dada Morero on Thursday faced yet another motion of no confidence, with a cloud of instability hanging in the city.
Morero, the lame-duck ANC deployee to the Government of Local Unity (GLU), has survived two previous attempts to remove him but with knives out for him, it’s only a matter of time before South Africa’s most important city has its 11th mayor in 10 years.
Previously, one of the motions against him was withdrawn, while another failed. But what was clear as we went to print was that as sure as the sun will set tomorrow, Morero’s days as Joburg mayor were numbered long before Thursday’s attempt to remove him.
It doesn’t help Morero that in December last year he lost the chairmanship of the ANC in Joburg to Loyiso Masuku, who now leads a powerful faction of the party.
With ANC factions at war with each other, his position is weakened and questions arise about his suitability to lead the party in the GLU. If ANC members in the December poll, marred by allegations of vote rigging, found him to be unsuitable to lead the party, what makes him good enough to be their choice for Joburg mayor?
Joburg is too important a city to have a mayor who has lost legitimacy as a leader even in his own party. The ANC needed to cut its losses and recall him long before this latest bid to axe him, deploy a stronger candidate to lead it in the coalition and stabilise the city.
Perhaps it is time for Masuku to step into the hot seat. The two centres of power phenomenon in the ANC, where the new regional leader is not the mayor, will cause further instability in the metro.
With the G20 summit behind us and the city sliding back into the abyss of service delivery crises, Morero has nothing to use to cling to power. Several suburbs in Randburg have not had refuse collected in three weeks because Pikitup workers started striking in a standoff over alleged corruption in the hiring of permanent staff. The temporary staff have blocked the gates of the depot to stop trucks from leaving the premises.
It is no wonder then that the political management committee, which includes parties in the GLU, this week called on Morero to resign before Thursday’s no confidence motion to save the coalition government and his party from embarrassment.
Whatever happened on Thursday is a clear sign that Morero is a burden to Joburg and that the city can’t afford an extended period of instability where political skirmishes hamstring service delivery.
Morero should long have heeded the call to quit for the stability of the city, or face the humiliation of a motion of no confidence. It was humiliating enough that his comrades in the ANC rejected him in December.