Joburg Soca debate: Morero accused of misleading residents inside a church

Opposition parties have punched holes in Joburg Mayor Dada Morero’s 2026 State of the City (Soca) speech, describing it as full of empty promises and illusions.

Morero delivered what could be his last Soca at the St Mary’s Anglican Church on Wednesday, with his administration being left with just five months before the 4 November local government elections.

Empty promises

ActionSA caucus leader Marcel Coutriers said Morero’s administration has failed the residents of Johannesburg.

“As in previous years, his plans and achievements are not aligned with what he promised last year… he maintained his tradition of delivering hollow, flaky speeches,” he said.

Coutriers also criticised the ANC-led municipal government for going on a rigorous by-law enforcement in the inner city months before the elections. He described the campaign as being seasonal.

“We cannot only clean the city when a big event is coming; this must be a continued effort. We have more than 1 000 hijacked properties in the city, and this current leadership has shown no appetite to resolve it.

“The mayor in his address failed to address the elephant in the room… but let’s just speak about crime, and this is committed largely by illegal foreign nationals, and this has pushed away our investors,” he said.

The blame game

The ACDP’s Norman Mkhonza criticised Morero for blaming apartheid for the city’s problems. He also criticised him for repeatedly stating that he inherited a broken city.

“As the ACDP caucus, we continue to submit that collective action and willingness to work together requires maturity, not these childish ways we have experienced in this 2021- 2026 term,” he said.

He also raised concerns about the sudden campaigns to clean up the inner city months before the local government elections.

“We sincerely hope that this is not another publicity stunt aimed at positioning the administration ahead of the local government elections 2026. The residents of Johannesburg have had many commitments over the years regarding the revitalisation of the inner city, yet the lived realities on the ground often tell a different story.”

The mayor’s denial of the true state of the city

DA caucus leader Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku claimed that Morero’s speech was full of lies.

“Yesterday we went to church to listen to the mayor’s farewell speech that was littered with untruths, Madam Speaker, Madam Speaker. A State of the City Address, Mr mayor, should be an honest account of where our city stands; it should tell residents the truth about the conditions of their roads, their water supply, the electricity network, their finances, their safety and their future.

“It should not be an exercise in political theatre, it should not be a celebration of slogans while communities wait in the dark, taps run dry, refuse piles up, and businesses lose confidence,” she said.

Kayser-Echeozonjoku said Morero misled residents by suggesting that life in Johannesburg is better than in Cape Town.

“You chose to compare Johannesburg with Cape Town, that was a huge mistake, Mr mayor. You relied on a selective quarter-on-quarter unemployment comparison and hoped that Johannesburg residents would not look at the full picture, Mr mayor.”

According to Kayser-Echeozonjoku, unemployment in Johannesburg is worsening compared to the City of Cape Town.

“Johannesburg is becoming a city where too many people are giving up looking for work; that is the difference between hope and despair, that is the difference between a government that enables growth and a government that explains why it has declined,” she said.

She also accused Morero of lying about the municipality’s finances.

“A financially stable city does not lose the confidence of development financiers. A financially stable city does not replace paying residents and put them at risk because City Power cannot settle its Eskom account. A financially stable city, Mr mayor, does not have its debt instrument suspended by the JSE. This is not sound financial management Mr mayor. This is a government running from crisis to crisis,” she said.

Kayser-Echeozonjoku also said Morero had misled residents by claiming that Johannesburg residents have confidence in the city’s public health care facilities.

Service delivery backlogs

Meanwhile, the Freedom Front Plus bemoaned the state of the city’s roads and called on the mayor to address the serious infrastructure backlogs.