DA guns for Joburg mayor

South Africa’s second-biggest political party submitted a motion of no confidence in the mayor of Johannesburg, the country’s economic hub and continent’s richest city. 

The Democratic Alliance filed the motion against Dada Morero of the African National Congress and took a similar step against Nobuhle Mthembu, the speaker of the Johannesburg City Council, it said in a statement Wednesday. 

Morero became the city’s eighth mayor in just four years in August and promised an improvement in services. He previously served for 25 days in 2022.  

Johannesburg is a poster child for municipal failure and the nation’s wider challenges, with rubbish littering potholed streets and squatters living precariously in derelict buildings due to a chronic lack of housing.

About 40% of its water supply goes to waste through leaking pipes, while 35% of its electricity is lost, often through cable theft that causes power cuts, and due to people bypassing meters.

Under the current leadership, “basic services are crumbling, communities are being neglected, and the very machinery of local government is grinding to a halt,” the DA said, adding that the speaker has failed to uphold a constitutional role as an impartial guardian of council processes, undermining its ability to hold the executive accountable. 

The ANC lost its outright parliamentary majority in May 29 elections, entering into a national coalition with the Democratic Alliance, and eight smaller rivals.

In the central Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg, the two biggest parties failed to clinch a power-sharing deal that would have filtered down to municipal level.