
Joburg Mayor Morero promises to return dilapidated Walter Sisulu Square to its former glory
JOHANNESBURG - Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero has promised to return the dilapidated Walter Sisulu Square to its former state by June next year.
Located in Kliptown, Soweto, the square is both a national and a UNESCO World Heritage site.
It is where the Congress of the People took place in 1955 and the Freedom Charter was adopted.
ALSO READ:
• Some Kliptown residents say govt has fallen short of Freedom Charter ideals
• Dilapidated state of Walter Sisulu Square symbolic of the deteriorating state of Kliptown, says resident
The square was damaged during the July 2021 unrest and now lies in a run-down state.

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Eyewitness News
9 hours ago
- Eyewitness News
Joburg Mayor Morero promises to return dilapidated Walter Sisulu Square to its former glory
JOHANNESBURG - Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero has promised to return the dilapidated Walter Sisulu Square to its former state by June next year. Located in Kliptown, Soweto, the square is both a national and a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is where the Congress of the People took place in 1955 and the Freedom Charter was adopted. ALSO READ: • Some Kliptown residents say govt has fallen short of Freedom Charter ideals • Dilapidated state of Walter Sisulu Square symbolic of the deteriorating state of Kliptown, says resident The square was damaged during the July 2021 unrest and now lies in a run-down state.


Mail & Guardian
11 hours ago
- Mail & Guardian
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.

IOL News
12 hours ago
- IOL News
'The Freedom Charter lies in ruins in democratic South Africa'
The Freedom Charter was the historical culmination of progressive organisations, leaders, and individuals united in a country-wide endeavour to re-imagine and co-author a better future, says the writer. Image: African News Agency Kim Heller In his address at the 1993 ANC national conference, Pallo Jordan said, "The ANC is not the master of the people. It is the servant of the people." Today, the portraiture of the ANC as a devoted and dutiful servant to its citizenry has all but collapsed. The party of the people has abandoned its scripture. ANC leaders rule over South Africa as if they are remote landlords. Many avoid ordinary citizens as much as possible and visit poor communities in fancy motorcades when there is a calling to collect electoral votes. Seventy years ago, in the dark days of apartheid, thousands of ordinary citizens gathered in Kliptown, Soweto, to adopt the Freedom Charter, a blueprint for a democratic and just South Africa. The ominous presence of armed policemen and the ever-present fear of political intimidation failed to subdue the revolutionary ring of "The People Shall Govern!" or the heady exuberance of grassroots activism. The Freedom Charter was not an exclusive enclave or quick talk shop. It was not a political prank or political theatre, but the hard work of political purpose, collaboration, and community mobilisation. The Freedom Charter was the historical culmination of progressive organisations, leaders, and individuals united in a country-wide endeavour to re-imagine and co-author a better future. ANC leader Walter Sisulu described the Freedom Charter as the soul of the struggle for liberation and a symbol of the people's will, which cannot be muted. In 1990, South Africa's first democratically elected President, Nelson Mandela, said, "The Charter is more than just a call to action. It is the foundation of our democratic Constitution." Although the principles of the Charter have been inscribed into the Constitution of democratic South Africa, these ideals have been neglected, if not vandalised. The dire and despairing state of Kliptown is a living testimony to this. Shacks of misery and a tableau of poverty and joblessness mar the topography and serve as an everyday reminder of an incomplete liberation. Yearnings for a better tomorrow are now a ferment of discontentment, not only in Kliptown but across South Africa's poor and neglected communities. The Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication, in the centre of Kliptown, is a bleak picture of dereliction. What should have been a proud monument to the Freedom Charter has become a crime scene—a tragic historical betrayal. The Freedom Charter and the formation of the United Democratic Front (UDF) were expressions of democracy in action. Both were assertive and valiant acts of the power of the people in highly restrictive and perilous times. They were both strong covenants with ordinary people. Today, in the open planes of democracy, conversations of national importance are more likely to take place in deluxe, air-conditioned boardrooms. VIP invitations and events have replaced volunteerism. The proposed National Dialogue by Ramaphosa, estimated to cost R700 million, lacks the nation-building heart of the Freedom Charter initiative and its integrity of process. It lacks the spirit of volunteerism and grassroots involvement that underpinned the Freedom Charter and the birth of the UDF. For now, the President's dialogue appears to be an excessively extravagant elite talk shop with poor reach into communities. EFF MP Sinawo Thambo spoke of the irresponsibility of the extravagant exercise. "While millions go hungry, the ANC splurges on dialogues that exclude the poor." Economist Duma Gqubule reflected this week in Business Day about Ramaphosa's National Dialogue. 'The dialogue,' Gqubule writes, "will be like a distraction to pacify a restless, rebellious and polarised nation." The Freedom Charter lies in ruins in democratic South Africa. Despite its broad and largely unthreatening liberal undercarriage and appeal, the Charter has not been enacted in democratic South Africa. This is yet another example of the ANC's systemic failure to deliver meaningful transformation. This week, the ANC's national chairperson, Gwede Mantashe, was quick to defend the wins of the ANC, claiming that the majority of the Charters' promises have been implemented. However, despite some great strides, access to quality education remains uneven, wealth distribution has favoured elites, not citizens, and land justice is in permanent paralysis. The ANC's calligraphy of today is poor governance, political expedience, and incomprehensible arrogance. Its inability to effectively implement meaningful radical policies has seen neo-liberalism score over nationalisation, and land justice being surrendered. Mandela's vision of education as the great equaliser remains a work in progress.