The ANC in Johannesburg has taken a decision to recall Dada Morero as the mayor of the City of Johannesburg.
The Sunday Times can reveal that an urgent and special regional executive committee (REC) meeting on Saturday resolved to remove Morero as mayor.
The regional officials have now been tasked with the duty to inform the provincial and national leadership of their decision.
According to several sources, the ANC in Johannesburg called the special REC after they were served with court papers challenging the legitimacy of the conference which took place in December, where Morero lost the chairmanship of Johannesburg to Loyiso Masuku, who was later elected deputy mayor.
The court papers, which this publication has seen, were filed by Stanley Itshegetseng, who is said to be Morero’s special advisor in the metropolitan municipality.
In their meeting, the REC is said to have taken a dim view of this and effectively pointed to Morero as having been the force behind the court challenge.
“The REC is reviewing its decision to keep Dada as mayor because the relationship is irreconcilable as the state is used to undermine the elected leadership,” said a senior ANC regional leader.
‘We can’t co-exist. If we are to save the ANC and prepare adequately for elections, Dada [Morero] cannot continue to be allowed to abuse the state to undermine elected leadership and undermine the unity and cohesion of the ANC’
Another REC member was more direct in their comment, saying it had become clear that their relationship with Morero had become untenable and they could no longer work with him.
“We can’t co-exist. If we are to save the ANC and prepare adequately for elections, Dada [Morero] cannot continue to be allowed to abuse the state to undermine elected leadership and undermine the unity and cohesion of the ANC,” said the REC member.
They accused Morero of being behind a number of what they call “parallel programmes” that have been earmarked as “undermining the ANC regional leadership” since the December conference.
Morero, in January, filed a formal complaint in a letter to Gauteng provincial task team co-ordinator Hope Papo and ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, challenging the conference outcomes and raising concerns about the electoral committee that oversaw the conference.
In the letter dated January 21, Morero said the Gauteng leadership must respond to complaints about how the electoral committee and its members were appointed, as well as how it ran the conference.
“The severity of the alleged transgressions by the election agency necessitates clarification from the provincial task team regarding their appointment process, especially in light of the agency’s conduct, which threatens the integrity of the ANC’s internal democratic processes,” Morero said in the letter.
Mbalula later penned a letter to the regional leadership as well as national executive committee deployees to Gauteng that there was prima facie evidence of wrongdoing in how the Johannesburg regional conference was run.
This followed the discovery of alleged ballot boxes from the regional conference at a house in Pretoria on Sunday in a dramatic showdown between the police, politicians and the occupants of the house.
“This information was investigated, and it was confirmed that it pointed to prima facie misconduct. Based on this information, ANC security reported the matter to SAPS,” said Mbalula.
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