JOHANNESBURG, Sunday 30 August 2026 — ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa has described Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero’s conduct during a confrontation with a Tshepisong resident as “completely unacceptable”, intervening in a controversy involving one of the party’s three finalists for its Johannesburg mayoral candidacy little more than two months before the local government elections.
Ramaphosa addressed the incident while campaigning in Johannesburg this weekend, saying the ANC had confronted Morero about his conduct but had accepted his subsequent apology.
“Our mayor did make an utterance which we find completely unacceptable, but he has apologised,” Ramaphosa said.
“He has gone public and apologised, and we, as the ANC, have taken him up on that, and I do hope that our people also will be able to accept the apology that he has given.”
The controversy began during a City Power community meeting in Tshepisong on Thursday.
Morero and senior municipal officials were meeting residents over persistent electricity problems when a resident repeatedly accused the mayor of being a criminal.
Morero rejected the accusation and, during the increasingly heated exchange, told the resident he was “talking sh*t”.
The mayor subsequently issued what he called a “profuse and unconditional” apology.
Morero said emotions had escalated during the meeting and acknowledged that he should not have responded in that manner.
He also said he had spoken directly to the resident and that his apology had been accepted.
Ramaphosa said the incident did not reflect how the ANC expected its representatives to engage residents.
He nevertheless argued that political representatives make mistakes and said the important consideration was whether they acknowledged them.
The ANC president also rejected suggestions that his subsequent campaigning in the area amounted to damage control for Morero.
“It has not been damage control,” Ramaphosa said.
He said residents had instead raised concerns about councillors, municipal performance and service delivery during the ANC’s campaign activities.
The episode carries additional political significance because Morero’s future as mayor is currently under consideration by the ANC itself.
Morero is one of three finalists from whom the party intends selecting its Johannesburg mayoral candidate for the 4 November local government elections.
The other two are Deputy Mayor and ANC Johannesburg chairperson Loyiso Masuku and veteran party figure Frank Chikane.
The ANC had initially been expected to announce its Johannesburg candidate at its local government manifesto launch last weekend.
Instead, it publicly presented all three shortlisted contenders and said the final selection would take place in September.
Chikane has since been formally integrated into the Johannesburg campaign, placing all three contenders into active ANC election structures while the selection process continues.
Ramaphosa on Sunday dismissed criticism that the party was taking longer than rivals to announce its mayoral candidates.
He said the ANC did not have to follow the timetable adopted by other political parties and told reporters to “watch this space” for its announcement.
The timing makes Ramaphosa’s public criticism of Morero more politically consequential than it would ordinarily be for an incumbent mayor.
The ANC’s national leadership is simultaneously evaluating whether Morero should remain the party’s principal candidate to govern Johannesburg after November.
There is currently no indication from the ANC that the Tshepisong incident has removed Morero from consideration.
Ramaphosa’s comments instead indicate that the party regards the conduct as unacceptable while considering the mayor’s apology sufficient to move forward for now.
Opposition parties have sought to use the incident against Morero.
MK Party Johannesburg mayoral candidate Bongani Baloyi criticised the mayor’s conduct on Saturday and said Johannesburg required a leader who respected the mandate entrusted to the office.
Baloyi, a former Midvaal mayor, was announced on Friday as the MK Party’s candidate for Johannesburg.
The contest already includes former DA federal leader Helen Zille, ActionSA president and former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba and BOSA deputy leader Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster, among other candidates.
The confrontation also arose directly from one of the issues likely to dominate the Johannesburg campaign: municipal service delivery.
Tshepisong residents have experienced prolonged electricity problems.
City Power previously withdrew some technical services from the area, citing widespread illegal connections, vandalism and repeated interference with infrastructure.
During Thursday’s meeting, City Power acting chief executive Charles Tlouane said the area had approximately 12,000 registered prepaid customers but that only slightly more than 200 were actively purchasing electricity.
City officials said work to normalise the electricity network would begin from Monday, including audits, removal of illegal connections and assessment of infrastructure capacity.
Ramaphosa’s weekend campaign also encountered complaints elsewhere in Johannesburg about electricity, water, unemployment and crime.
After engagements in Orange Farm, he acknowledged significant concerns about crime and said weaknesses in local community policing structures required attention.
He also linked declining electoral participation to perceptions of poor service delivery.
“People who sense that service delivery is not really happening to improve their lives will stay away from voting,” Ramaphosa said, according to the Sowetan.
That connection makes the Tshepisong episode particularly awkward for an ANC campaign seeking to persuade Johannesburg residents that it can improve municipal services.
Morero is campaigning both as the incumbent mayor responsible for the current administration and as a contender seeking the ANC nomination for another term.
Whether the incident affects that nomination remains unclear.
The ANC has said its final Johannesburg mayoral candidate will be announced in September, meaning the party’s assessment of Morero, Masuku and Chikane is entering its final stages.
Until that decision is made, Morero remains both the executive mayor and one of three possible faces of the ANC’s campaign to retain control of South Africa’s largest metropolitan municipality.
