Joburg mayor, Dada Morero, is set to be recalled as the region looks to reconfigure following the December elective conference that saw Loyiso Masuko emerge as chairperson
Image: Itumeleng English/ Independent Newspapers
The mayor of Johannesburg, Dada Morero, is facing a recall after the African National Congress (ANC) in the city resolved at a meeting on Saturday to relieve him of his duties.
An urgent special meeting of the party’s Regional Executive Committee (REC) took the decision, with regional officials now tasked with informing provincial and national leadership of the move.
The special REC meeting was convened after the Johannesburg ANC was served with court papers challenging the legitimacy of the party’s regional conference held in December. At that conference, current deputy mayor Loyiso Masuku defeated Morero for the position of regional chairperson.
According to party insiders, the REC was not impressed with the legal challenge and believes Morero was behind the court action.
“The REC is reviewing its decision to keep Dada as mayor because the relationship is irreconcilable, as the state is being used to undermine the elected leadership,” said a regional ANC leader.
“We can’t co-exist. If we are to save the ANC and prepare adequately for elections, Dada cannot continue to be allowed to abuse the state to undermine elected leadership and weaken the unity and cohesion of the ANC.”
Regional leaders also accused Morero of running what they described as “parallel programmes” since the December conference, which they say have undermined the authority of the ANC’s regional leadership.
The tensions follow a formal complaint Morero lodged in January in a letter to Hope Papo, coordinator of the ANC’s Gauteng provincial task team, and the party’s secretary-general Fikile Mbalula. In the letter, Morero challenged the outcome of the regional conference and raised concerns about the conduct of the electoral committee that oversaw the process.
Mbalula later wrote to the regional leadership and national executive committee (NEC) deployees in Gauteng, stating that there appeared to be prima facie evidence of irregularities in the manner in which the Johannesburg conference had been conducted. The concerns emerged after alleged ballot boxes from the conference were reportedly discovered at a house in Pretoria.
Attempts to obtain comment from ANC Johannesburg spokesperson Mantombi Nkosi were unsuccessful.
Morero’s possible recall comes amid similar political shifts across ANC structures in Gauteng, where several leaders who lost internal party conferences have been removed from executive positions.
The party in Gauteng recently initiated a leadership shake-up across several municipalities, instructing a number of senior officials to step down amid growing concerns about financial pressures, governance challenges and service delivery failures.
In Emfuleni Local Municipality, executive mayor Sipho Radebe was instructed by the ANC’s Sedibeng regional leadership on February 10 to resign from his position.
Radebe, however, resisted the directive and appealed to Mbalula, arguing that the recall was politically motivated and did not take into account the severe institutional and financial problems he inherited when he assumed office in 2021.
In the Sedibeng District Municipality, the regional ANC also removed council speaker Moipone Modikeng and the member of the mayoral committee for local economic development and tourism, Lulama Gamede, after they allegedly refused to step down voluntarily.
Regional leaders justified the intervention by pointing to what they described as an “unprecedented” decline in municipal performance, including ongoing financial crises, deteriorating service delivery and the need for new leadership to stabilise governance.
The developments follow a turbulent period in the Sedibeng district during 2025, when former district mayor Lerato Maloka was removed through a motion of no confidence amid allegations of financial mismanagement. The controversy included questions over a missing mayoral chain and scrutiny surrounding an overseas trip to Germany.
karabo.ngoepe@inl.co.za