Former Joburg mayor Dada Morero looking at stabilising city’s finances

Those who have been following Gauteng politics will know that Dada Morero was Joburg’s mayor for 25 days – and also the ANC’s Joburg chair. He is no new kid on the politics block.

He was instrumental in the ousting of Dr Mpho Phalatse as Johannesburg mayor through a motion of no confidence and took over as the executive mayor. But his tenure was short-lived due to a ruling made in the High Court in Johannesburg.

Early life

Beyond politics, he is a father of five, a man with love for his family and a full-time activist. Morero was born and bred in one of SA’s biggest townships, Soweto, alongside his four siblings. He grew up with his parents until they parted, forcing him to financially assist his mother.

“Already at standard 8 (Grade 10), I was working on the weekends. When others enjoyed their weekends, I had to go to work, starting on Friday afternoon,” he says.

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“I worked as a cashier, a packer, a supervisor, so you almost do everything there. It was casual work which also helped to sustain myself and at home.”

Despite his family’s financial circumstances, Morero forged ahead with his academic ambitions and went to university.

He holds a masters degree in public administration and is currently studying towards his second masters degree, in public management and policy development, at London University Business School.

Despite his busy work schedule that involves overseeing the finances of the city, and his academic schedule, he still finds time for his family. He tied the knot in 2008. His eldest child is 28 and the youngest is four years old.

“When I am not working, I make sure I am home. I watch movies with them, we do things together, we fight together and we cry together,” he says.

If there is a period in which he doesn’t compromise family time, it is December.

“In December, I close shop, it’s strictly family time,” Morero says proudly. Apart from being a family man, Morero is a hardcore Orlando Pirates supporter and his taste in music comes as a surprise as men his age usually enjoy a bit of jazz.

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“I love watching soccer and I am a Pirates fan. I love Maskandi music as I identify with it quite seriously and that is the music I enjoy.

“A lot of people are also surprised that I do not drink alcohol,” he says.

Activist Morero

On his political activism, which began in 1986, he says there was no way one could have shielded away from joining politics at a time when the country was under the brutal apartheid regime.

“There were disparities in South Africa. There was a white community that lived in affluent areas while we did not have streets, roads and you did not have electricity.

“Those things were a trigger to mobilise and conscientise one into entering politics,” he says.

Morero says being an activist at the time was a very dangerous thing as one had a threat of being detained and tortured.

“You might have been forced to exile depending on the condition you may have found yourself operating in and the other one was a risk of one finding themselves fighting with counterrevolutionary groups like gangsters and those who were opposed to the struggle in the main. In 1999, Morero left political activism to join what was called the South African Secret Service, now the State Security Agency.

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“You could not be involved in a political organisation because you have to demonstrate the highest level of impartiality because what governs you is the constitution of the republic nothing else,” he says.

“I won’t go into details except that I was part of counterintelligence and that was the arm of the service I was in.

“I was later brought into the open environment and I did the vetting. In 2004, I left the state and joined local government and came back into political activism.

“I became the secretary of the Joburg region in 2011 until recently, when I was elected the chairperson.”

Asked if he was ever worried about dying after he was elected as a mayor following conspiracy theories that mayors from the ANC were being killed shortly after taking the top job. This after three mayors in Johannesburg died in a space of just 10 months, two from car accidents while one died of Covid complications.

“We do not control death, it is part of our lives and if you are given responsibility and you think you are going to die, you would be wrong because it is not a decision you can take to die,” says Morero.

“You accept the responsibility because we also understand from our socialisation and political consciousness that should you die in the services of the people, you’ll die as a martyr. I would have died in the services of the people and that is okay.”

With him being MMC for finance in the richest – but also most broke metro in South Africa – Morero says he plans to stabilise the city’s finances following a R2 billion loan from the Development Bank of South Africa, which the council recently approved.

– lungam@citizen. co.za