Note to Editors: Please find an English soundbite by Cllr Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku here
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Johannesburg has been reliably informed that officials in the City of Johannesburg are being intimidated and threatened with dismissal by members of the Executive, due to their questioning of the legality of Dada Morero’s so called “Bomb Squad”.
The DA wrote to the MEC of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) and the former Acting City Manager about officials taking instruction from this newly created parallel structure that neither the Municipal Structures Act or Systems Act makes provision for.
Crucially, this structure has also not been approved by Council.
While Mayor Dada Morero and his executive put unconstitutional structures in place without Council approval, they are now forcing officials to also violate the law by implementing instructions from the “Bomb Squad”.
The DA will be following up with the MEC of CoGTA regarding his response on the legality of the “Bomb Squad” and all of the questions we had, these include demands such as:
Clarity on whether it is legal to force officials to take instruction from a possibly unconstitutional structure, that was not approved by Council, not budgeted for, and opens the City up to yet another legal challenge.
We are also writing to the new Acting City Manager to investigate these allegations.
The DA will not stand by while officials are forced to be ANC electioneering tools and are forced to work with a structure that in our view, has no legal standing.