The political warfare within the Johannesburg metro has intensified after documents leaked to IOL appear to support claims that Executive Mayor Dada Morero unilaterally suspended the Rea Vaya feeder bus services in Soweto.

Furthermore, it is alleged that he ignored technical and legal advice from city officials.

The leak comes as the row over the feeder buses between the Mayor and the MMC for Transport, Kenny Kunene, continues.

After Kunene publicly distanced himself from the bus suspension, calling it a “political intervention” by the Mayor, Morero issued a formal reprimand on January 22, 2026, demanding Kunene provide “documentary or other verifiable evidence” that the Mayor acted alone.

IOL has now obtained Kunene’s formal response to that reprimand, dated January 23 2026, which, according to Kunene prove the Mayor overruled his own department.

In his response to the Mayor, Kunene stated that the suspension of services was never presented to the Mayoral Committee, meaning the principle of “collective responsibility” Morero cited does not apply. Instead, Kunene claims the decision was taken unilaterally by Morero following meetings with the Soweto Taxi Services (STS) in February 2025.

According to the leaked response, city officials explicitly warned Morero that he did not have the legal authority to suspend the buses. “During a meeting in your boardroom, officials conveyed that BRT operational matters fall outside the authority of the Executive Mayor, that you were punching above your pay grade, and that the feeder buses should be reinstated with immediate effect,” Kunene wrote.

The leaked annexures provide a timeline of the crisis. Annexure B, a briefing report from March 2025, reveals that the STS demanded the “immediate suspension of unlicensed buses”. However, city officials confirmed during a meeting on February 18 2025, that the buses were, in fact, fully licensed.

Despite this confirmation and warnings that the suspension carried “potential legal and financial consequences,” the Mayor reportedly directed that the buses should not operate until an agreement was reached with the taxi association.

The documents further reveal that the City is now paying for services that are not being delivered. A memo dated September 10 2025, from the Acting City Manager to Mayor Morero, requests urgent intervention regarding the “non-operated kilometres being paid for by the City since February 2025 to date”.

The memo states that while the stoppage was initially treated as force majeure, legal opinion from Magagula Attorneys warned that this justification “cannot continue indefinitely”.

Kunene’s response highlights that the suspension of the 45 feeder buses has forced commuters back to minibus taxis, a move he previously described as creating a “vacuum that is now being filled by minibus taxis”.

In his letter to the Mayor, Kunene reiterated that despite escalating the matter to the City Manager in June and September 2025, his concerns were ignored.

“You were in receipt of my advice, technical advice from officials, and a formal legal opinion. Despite this, all advice was disregarded,” Kunene wrote in the leaked document. Previously, Morero had accused Kunene of undermining “executive cohesion” by going public with his grievances. 

The Mayor’s office has not yet responded to the leaked contents of the dossier.

IOL

Source link