Who benefits from the musical chairs in Joburg Council?
(File photo)
Wednesday's dramatic council sitting in Johannesburg offered no redemption for a city in crisis — only more politics as usual.
As the rubble of coalition squabbles settled, mayor Dada Morero, of the ANC, survived a motion of no confidence. While his mediocre leadership endures, the city continues to decay beneath him.
The ANC in the province hailed the outcome as a 'resounding defeat' of a 'baseless' Democratic Alliance-sponsored motion. In truth, it was a reminder that Johannesburg remains in the grip of political brinkmanship rather than principled governance.
Morero, a mayor with few notable achievements and a shrinking reservoir of public trust, lives to govern another day — not because he inspired confidence, but because deals were struck and rival ambitions fell short.
The vote, 144 against the motion and 75 in favour, with 43 abstentions, revealed more than just arithmetic. It showed that many parties — including ActionSA — are still playing musical chairs with governance, hoping to not be standing when the music stops ahead of the 2026 local government elections.
Stuck in the middle of all of this are long-suffering Johannesburg taxpayers, who, on a daily basis, must endure undriveable roads, frequent and prolonged water outages, infrastructure collapse, crime, corruption and unemployment.
Despite this, the ANC's provincial task team declared victory, touting Morero's leadership as a stabilising force and citing 'strategic infrastructure projects' and 'tackling youth unemployment' as signs of progress. The daily reality for most residents contradicts this shameful spin.
The speaker of council, ActionSA's Nobuhle Mthembu, was not so fortunate. She was ousted the same day Morero stood victorious, after a motion supported by the ANC and the DA — two parties normally at odds, now temporarily aligned in expediency.
Mthembu, in her response, did not hold back.
Her removal, she said, had nothing to do with service delivery and everything to do with backroom deals and attempts to install more pliable figures in key positions.
Indeed, the ANC has made it clear it intends to reclaim the speaker role for itself. With speculation mounting that former finance MMC Margaret Arnolds may return as speaker, leaving the city's finance portfolio open for the ANC, the party appears keen to consolidate control — and finances — before voters head to the polls in 2026.
Whether this serves the people of Johannesburg is unclear.
The DA cast the day as a moral victory, declaring that it had exposed a city presided over by decay. But it also found itself accused of trying to broker a deal with Al Jama-ah to restore that party's failed former mayor, Kabelo Gwamanda, in exchange for political support.
The DA denied these allegations, but the charge, if true, underscores just how deeply transactional Johannesburg's politics have become.
This posturing, betrayal, and denial takes place against a backdrop of basic failures. There are reports that can't be tabled because there is no speaker. Ward committees are dysfunctional. And the people, in whose name all of this is supposedly done, are left voiceless and underserved.
For Johannesburg, this was not a moment of clarity. It was a reminder that even with a motion of no confidence defeated, the crisis of confidence continues.
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