Dada Morero in trouble with treasury, coalition partners over Johannesburg finances:
Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero is under growing pressure to fix the city’s finances and stabilise political leadership, as the treasury threatens to freeze critical funding over billions in irregular expenditure.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has given Morero until mid-August to account for R24.4 billion in unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful spending. A letter dated 30 July accused the City of Johannesburg of taking “little to no action” on financial mismanagement and warned that a failure to submit a credible recovery plan would result in cuts to national grants.
The city’s budget depends heavily on these transfers, which make up roughly R13 billion, or 15%, of its total R89 billion budget. These funds are used to support basic services and indigent households. Officials warn that Johannesburg’s already limited capacity to deliver services could collapse if the funds are withheld.
Godongwana’s intervention has also reignited concerns about who is really running the city, which critics say is starting to resemble a municipality under soft administration, with key decisions influenced by unelected actors.
Former mayor Kabelo Gwamanda has also weighed in, questioning whether Johannesburg is being managed by its elected officials or rather by external advisers, including the presidential task team and a group dubbed the “bomb squad” appointed by Morero in June to advise on service delivery — whose role and impact however remains unclear.
Auditor general Tsakani Maluleke has flagged eight material irregularities in Johannesburg’s financial management, citing a persistent lack of consequence management. The treasury has warned that failure to submit a credible recovery plan could trigger deeper political and administrative instability.
Earlier this year, Maluke warned that the metro’s financial health threatened its ability to deliver services successfully in the future after it received an unqualified audit with findings.
Morero, who took over the finance portfolio temporarily after Margaret Arnolds was elected council speaker last month, gave the position to former deputy regional secretary Loyiso Masuku on Thursday. Incidentally, Morero and Masuku are expected to go head-to-head for the position of ANC Johannesburg regional chairperson before the end of the year.
Smaller parties such as Al Jama-ah, the United Democratic Movement and the African Independent Congress that form part of Johannesburg’s government of local unity had demanded that the position be given to former mayor Thapelo Amad or else they would withdraw their support for the ANC. Amad briefly served as mayor in 2023 but resigned ahead of a motion of no confidence.
The parties argued that this was part of the coalition agreement made when the ANC was handed the mayoralty. According to the agreement, if the ANC took the mayor position, the finance portfolio would go to one of the smaller coalition partners.
Gwamanda said the ANC needed to honour its commitments and treat its partners with respect. He warned that if Amad was not appointed, it would be viewed as a betrayal of the coalition agreement and could prompt parties to reconsider their support for Morero.
“The minority parties voted for the ANC’s Morero because of political pressure and a misguided framework on coalition government,” read a letter from Gwamanda to Morero’s office dated 5 August.
ANC regional coordinator Sasabona Manganye confirmed the tension, saying the original deal with the minority parties was that they would get two MMC posts in exchange for their votes.
But arrangement changed when Arnolds of the African Independent Congress, a minority party, was made speaker, Manganye added. He said the speaker role is more influential and that the coalition agreement had therefore effectively been met, and also questioned the loyalty of some minority partners, pointing to allegations that Al Jama-ah had been in discussions with opposition parties.
Despite the small parties’ threats to withdraw their support, Morero chose Masuku to run the most powerful position in the metro — keeping the power within the ANC.
The Mail & Guardian understands that Morero had held on to the finance MCC position, hoping to give to one of his political supporters who would help in his fight to retain power in the upcoming ANC regional conference.
“Morero had been trying to delay the decision [before the pressure from treasury to maintain control over the portfolio while navigating internal and external pressures,” one source said.
The Democratic Alliance, which is the largest opposition party in council, said the letter from the treasury confirmed concerns it has raised for some time.
DA caucus leader Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku said in a statement that conditional grants must be used strictly for their intended purpose and that treasury’s action was justified. She warned that if the grants are suspended, the city’s ability to deliver even the most basic services will be compromised.
“The minister’s letter is no empty threat. Johannesburg’s R89 billion budget is funded through a mix of grants, loans, revenue collection and conditional grants. Conditional grants, which form a significant portion of the city’s funding, can only be spent on what they are intended for,” Kayser-Echeozonjoku said.
“If the treasury pulls back or suspends these funds, as the minister warns in his letter, the city’s ability to deliver the little basic services it is currently able to deliver, will collapse entirely.”
Several insiders said the treasury’s letter had created a sense of urgency that is politically impossible to ignore.
The deadline for the recovery plan falls before Johannesburg hosts the G20 summit of heads of state later this year. President Cyril Ramaphosa, who visited the city in March, publicly criticised its condition as dismal, with poor service delivery across the board and many roads full of potholes.
Morero’s office had not responded to questions from the M&G at the time of publishing.
MBDA celebrates women who shape city’s future:
The Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA) joins the nation in celebrating Women’s Day on 9 August 2025 to honour the contributions of women who are helping to shape the social, economic and physical fabric of Nelson Mandela Bay.
As an agency mandated to drive urban renewal and inclusive development, the MBDA recognises that the future of any city depends on the full and equal participation of all its people. This means elevating the voices of women in every aspect of planning and implementation.
Over the years, women’s voices have shaped some of the MBDA’s most meaningful projects. “Women bring a vital perspective to urban development,” says Glenda Perumal, Chair of the Mandela Bay Development Agency Board, “especially when it comes to safety, access, sustainability and community cohesion.”
This understanding is reflected across the MBDA’s leadership. The agency’s Operations arm is led by women, driving some of the Bay’s most complex infrastructure and urban renewal projects. Key portfolios such as Psychosocial Development, Special Projects, Risk and Audit, the Nelson Mandela Bay Science and Technology Centre and others also benefit from female leadership.
At governance level, the value of inclusive leadership is powerfully conveyed by Perumal. “Being entrusted with this role in the city where I was born and raised is deeply meaningful to me. I understand the challenges our communities face from my own lived experience,” she says. “Serving on this board means being able to guide decisions that affect the people of my city. I’m committed to ensuring that our work is both visionary and grounded in the everyday needs of our residents. It’s a responsibility I carry with pride and care.”
Her thoughts are echoed by fellow Board Member, Pinky Kondlo, who emphasises the need for a forward-thinking mindset: “In every decision we make, we need to think long term. A development mindset means always asking how today’s actions contribute to building tomorrow’s opportunities. Women bring a powerful lens to that kind of thinking because we often hold a dual view that is both strategic and deeply human. That balance is essential to making development work.”
The importance of women’s leadership is clear to the MBDA’s Operations Executive, Zinhle Thwala-Zulu, who oversees key construction and infrastructure projects: “When we plan and deliver our projects, we shape how people live in the city,” she explains. “On site, every decision matters. We have to think about timelines, quality, safety and a whole host of other factors. I make sure we deliver what’s been promised, while also paying attention to the impact on the surrounding community. This requires technical skills and an understanding of how every decision affects people’s daily lives. Our processes have to be embedded in community needs.”
On the ground, women lead with community impact efforts. Lerato Muzah is the MBDA’s Project Manager for Psycho-Social Projects. “My role is about understanding people: their hopes, their challenges and their environment. Development has got to include that human element, otherwise it risks missing the point. People’s well-being cannot be separated from it. Progress depends on how safe and connected people feel in their neighbourhoods, and in my experience, women are often the first to notice these changes in their communities.”
Similarly, the Agency’s Special Projects Manager, Isabel Myburgh-Vumazonke, highlights how the MBDA champions the drive to entrench culture and identity in development projects. “Our city’s identity matters. Whether I’m working on a heritage project or promoting creative industries, I try to make sure projects speak to where we’ve come from and where we’re headed. The aim is to create spaces and projects that people connect with.”
Behind the scenes, accountability is strengthened by the work of the Risk, Internal Audit and Compliance Manager, Tembela Bacela. “My job is to help the organisation stay accountable to ensure clean governance. That means being alert, thinking critically and helping management to see risks and mitigate them effectively.”
Female leadership extends to agency-operated sites, namely the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and the Nelson Mandela Bay Science and Technology Centre. Managing stadium operations demands precision and teamwork, and the leadership team aims to deliver excellence to the city and to visitors alike. “Every partnership or booking is an opportunity to enhance the stadium’s economic role,” says Commercial Head, Zizipho Makwabe. “I focus on creating value for the stadium and for the wider community. We all benefit if the stadium is a vibrant and busy place.”
Singathwa Poswa, Research, Innovation and Sustainability Manager at the Nelson Mandela Bay Science and Technology Centre, feels strongly about the role of her team in supporting young people in Nelson Mandela Bay. “I want every young person who walks into the Nelson Mandela Bay Science and Technology Centre to feel like they belong in science, especially girls. We envision the centre as a vibrant hub of STEM, innovation and skills development, where young minds are empowered to explore, create and grow. Our focus is on building confidence and curiosity about the knowledge and opportunities that this kind of learning opens up. Exposure to the possibilities that STEMI careers offer can change the direction of a young person’s life in fundamental and exciting ways.”
“Honouring Women’s Day also means recognising that there remains much to be done,” concludes Perumal. “We cannot build a thriving, inclusive city without weaving women’s experiences and ideas into its blueprint.”
The blood of South Africa’s past demands we condemn genocide in Gaza:
Israel is a state that is willing to bury the truth in blood to preserve impunity and shield itself from accountability
This is not hyperbole. I know what it means to live under a regime that buries truth beneath bloodied soil. I was born in Pimville, Soweto, under the shadow of PW Botha’s brutal apartheid regime. I spent my formative years witnessing a government weaponise its power against its own citizens, whose only crime was to fight for the total liberation of African people.
Like many black South Africans, my past is etched with the pain of losing loved ones to the viciousness of the apartheid machinery. I have relatives who had to abandon their homes in KwaZulu-Natal in the dead of night, carrying nothing but the clothes on their backs, because the black-on-black violence which was engineered to fracture our communities, turned neighbour against neighbour, ripping apart the very fabric of our existence.
That history lives in my bones. It shapes how I see Gaza, not as a distant tragedy, but as a mirror reflecting my own past.
Having trained as a journalist, I was taught that objectivity is sacred and that our role is to observe, not to intervene. But Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s words echo louder than any newsroom dogma: “If you are neutral in the face of suffering, you are on the side of the oppressor.”
This is why the genocide unfolding in Gaza is not a matter for debate. It is a matter of conscience. Israeli human rights organisations have confirmed what many have tried to deny: starvation is being used as a weapon of war.
Recently, the almost two-year parade of livestreamed atrocities committed by the Israeli regime against Palestinian civilians reached two more gory milestones. First, two Israeli-based human rights organisations, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights declared that Israel is committing genocide. Second, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global food security monitor, confirmed that “the worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip”.
These revelations should come as no surprise. Various agencies have gone to great lengths to expose Israel’s atrocities. So far, Israel has murdered more than 60,000 people, including at least 50,000 children killed or wounded in Gaza. Palestinians have been subjected to “unimaginable horrors”, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund’s (Unicef’s) regional director for the Middle East, Edouard Beigbeder.
“These children — that should never be reduced to numbers — are now part of a long, harrowing list of unimaginable horrors: the grave violations against children, the blockade of aid, the starvation, the constant forced displacement, and the destruction of hospitals, water systems, schools, and homes. In essence, the destruction of life itself in the Gaza Strip,” he said
Since 7 October, Israel has dropped more than 100,000 tonnes of bombs on Gaza, a city only slightly larger than Johannesburg. This is not war. It is genocide.
Holocaust and genocide scholar Professor Raz Segal has highlighted the tactic of mass starvation, noting: “At a certain point of these long processes of starvation, perpetrators cannot anymore deny that they don’t know and understand the consequences of their actions; that they have created conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the group in whole or in part.”
It is therefore not an exaggeration to describe this as a modern-day Holocaust with all the hallmarks of the atrocities committed by Hitler and the Nazis against six million Jews from 1941 to 1945.
South Africa is vindicated. Its brave act of filing a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to expose Israel’s systematic and deliberate mass murder of Palestinians has been confirmed.
Instead of sticking to the facts so ably argued by South African lawyers, defenders of the Israeli state have resorted to lies and propaganda. Some claimed South Africa had no business getting involved. Others accused Pretoria of supporting Hamas. The conspiracy machine even alleged that Iran paid South Africa’s legal fees at the ICJ. This has been thoroughly debunked. In response to parliamentary questions, the presidency assured the standing committee on appropriations that South Africa received no funding from Iran. Legal services were procured by multiple departments and appropriately accounted for.
Our moral stance on Palestine is the reason the depraved state of Israel continuously churns out bald-faced lies to justify what is clearly the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. This is why it is crucial for all of us, especially those who love humanity and wish to see it free of suffering, to continue exposing the truth about Israel.
Among the lies repeated by Israel is that Hamas uses women and children as human shields, so it can justify the relentless murder of innocents. Israel’s use of disinformation reveals a disturbing willingness to manipulate truth to defend the indefensible. Fabricated claims like the infamous “beheaded babies” narrative were used to manufacture consent for mass violence. This is a regime that drowns truth in blood to preserve impunity. Their lies are being used to mobilise the US against South Africa through the threat of sanctions through a Bill introduced by Republican Ronny Jackson.
These responses point to a deeper issue: There is an attempt to undermine South Africa’s sovereignty and its non-aligned posture on the global stage. South Africa, as a sovereign state, reserves the right to choose its alliances. Any attempt to dictate its friendships only betrays imperialistic ambition.
The working class has always been the backbone of liberation. In South Africa, it was the organised might of trade unions, community movements, and township resistance, and even churches that helped dismantle apartheid. Metal workers union Numsa, trade union federation Cosatu and countless other progressive formations refused to be neutral. They shut down factories, marched in defiance, and made the country ungovernable. Their solidarity with the liberation movement was not symbolic, it was strategic and material.
Today, that same spirit must rise again. The genocide in Gaza demands more than outrage, it demands action. Workers across the globe must recognise that imperialism is not just foreign policy, it is class war waged against the poor, the dispossessed, and the colonised. The Palestinian struggle is a workers’ struggle. And just as South African workers helped bring down apartheid, so too can global labour solidarity help end Israeli apartheid.
Boycotts, divestment and sanctions are important but more must be done. We must go further by refusing to handle Israeli goods in our workplaces, and build international alliances that make genocide unprofitable. Numsa recently resolved at its national executive committee meeting that it will participate in a campaign against Glencore, to prevent it from exporting coal to Israel because that coal is being used to wipe out Palestinians. We must refuse to use our labour to advance a genocide because we have the power to grind the machinery of oppression to a halt.
The words of the Protestant pastor, Martin Niemöller, who spent seven years in a concentration camp for opposing Hitler, remind us of the cost of silence:
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.”
I speak not just as a journalist or unionist, but as someone who has seen the cost of silence. Gaza is not far away, it is Soweto. And just as we rose then, we must rise now. The blood of our past demands it. The future of humanity depends on it.
Phakamile Hlubi-Majola is a journalist and communicator. She is the national spokesperson for the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.
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