ANC’s Dada Morero elected Joburg’s new mayor

The ANC’s Johannesburg regional chair, Dada Morero, has been elected the city’s new mayor after the DA’s Mpho Phalatse was ousted.

Morero was voted in unopposed on Friday shortly after Phalatse was removed through an ANC-sponsored motion of no confidence, despite her filing an urgent court bid to interdict the special council sitting.

Morero’s election marks the return of the ANC’s control of the metro after a multiparty coalition led by the DA that took power after the November 2021 local government polls. The DA has also lost the position of council speaker after Vasco Da Gama was ousted in favour of COPE’s Colleen Makhubele. The count showed 139 councillors voted in favour of the motion to remove Phalatse as mayor — just two days after the ANC, EFF, Patriotic Alliance and other smaller parties installed Makhubele as speaker. The ANC’s takeover of the municipality comes after the DA refused calls from ActionSA and the Patriotic Alliance to give the speaker position to one of their coalition partners, preferably the IFP.

It is understood that the Patriotic Alliance has agreed to the ANC’s offer of two member of the mayoral committee (MMC) positions in exchange for its support to install Makhubele and Morero.

The PA has eight councillors in the council. -