Dada Morero will not be leading the ANC in Johannesburg in the local government elections next year.
The future of the mayor of Johannesburg Dada Morero seems uncertain as he is no longer the leader of the ANC in the metro.
Morero was booted out of power at the ANC’s regional conference that was held in Woodmead, north of the city this week.
His political adversary Loyiso Masuku is now the new chairperson of the ANC in Johannesburg. She won the elective conference with 184 votes, while Morero received 149 votes in the early hours of Friday morning.
In a press briefing, the ANC regional secretary, Sasabona Manganye, told the media that it is now up to the party’s national office to decide whether Morero continues as mayor of the city.
Two centers of power
The ANC has been quite sensitive about the creation of two centres of power after conferences. This is because the party will traditionally appoint the leader of the region as its mayoral candidate in municipalities for provinces, they would normally appoint their provincial chairperson as the premier of the province.
“There will not necessarily be two centres of power for as long as our deployees understand that the centre is the ANC.
“It is also important to mention that the ANC guidelines are very clear in terms of issues of mayorship in the metro. It is mainly decided by the national office bearers, so currently, we have a serving mayor; we have no issues with the current mayor.
“We have never encountered any problem with him. We have just been elected, so we cannot be thinking differently,” he said.
His comments were also supported by Masuku, who has differed with Morero in a number of organisational matters.
“The ANC remains the centre of power. Connie Bapela House where the secretary is based full time where all our deployees account to there are no two centres of power and that discussion does not arise because this is an ANC conference where we were electing leadership [sic al]).
“You must also remember that any discussion on mayoral candidates is actually the competence of the national office bearers; it is not in our purview to discuss such matters,” she said.
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First female chairperson
Meanwhile, Masuku said she is happy to be the first female chairperson of the ANC in Johannesburg in recent times.
“It is a privilege and an honour to be elected as the first female chairperson, and I think what is important is that I must not be the last. This must actually be the beginning for many chairpersons to come,” she said.
Morero’s view on losing the election
Earlier this week, Morero said he would accept his loss if it happened. He said his leadership of the ANC in Johannesburg was based on serving the community and obeying his party.
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