Joburg mayor called to act as Kenny Kunene's attack on Morero widens coalition cracks

The ANC in Johannesburg wants action taken against Kenny Kunene, the city's member of the mayoral committee for roads and transport for publicly attacking Dada Morero, his colleague in the coalition government.

Kunene launched a blistering attack on Morero last week, accusing him of being captured by commercial interests and refusing to release funds to entities falling under Kunene’s department. The public spat has highlighted widening cracks in the City of Joburg’s government of local unity.

“Dada Morero is a very selfish and very greedy person. I don’t understand this man, we voted for him to be mayor in October and he became mayor for 25 days and their own issues messed up that arrangement,” said Kunene.

“However, when we came back there was a decision that the ANC would put up a candidate from a minority party to be mayor. We supported that, however, the man just changed... his change comes from selfish interest and greed.”

The ANC Greater Johannesburg region, of which Morero is chairperson, has asked mayor Kabelo Gwamanda “to show leadership at this time and call members of his mayoral committee back to order”.

“[Gwamanda] must act decisively in the interest of the unity, stability and cohesion of the government of local unity,” said party regional secretary Sasabona Manganye. 

Margaret Arnolds, deputy secretary of the African Independent Congress said she supported the call for Gwamanda's intervention.

“If one MMC is calling out another MMC in public, [the mayor] needs to call the two of them to understand what is going on, that should be the bottom line,” said Arnolds, whose party is part of the government of local unity in the city. "[Gwamanda] needs to rein in his MMCs,” she said.

ANC Greater Joburg spokesperson Masilo Serekele said Kunene's party, the Patriotic Alliance (PA), has written a letter to the ANC raising concerns about Morero’s conduct.

“The ANC will soon meet the PA to deal with those matters, however we caution the MMC of the PA  to desist from media spats and allow the two organisations to resolve their issues.

“While we appreciate the fact that the Patriotic Alliance, to which MMC Kunene belongs, has certain grievances regarding MMC Morero, we find the manner MMC Kunene has chosen to address such grievances completely wrong and unpalatable.”

Serekele said the government of local unity cannot afford to be distracted by sideshows which emanate from nothing other than a clash of personalities.

“All MMCs, regardless of how they feel about each other and the parties they belong to, must respect the GLU and unite around our eleven priorities at the centre of which are the residents of Johannesburg who have been longing for service delivery and employment opportunities,” he said.

Wits School of Governance expert TK Pooe said the public insults could be the beginning of an end of the coalition arrangement.

Pooe said the centre was not holding in the coalition government as there was “nothing fundamental that brings these people [government of local unity] together other than the fact that they want to stay in power”.

“It is like they (the coalition) are living from month-to-month,” he said.