Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero has apologised after using profanity during a heated exchange with a resident in Tshepisong, west of the city.
Morero was in the area with City of Johannesburg officials on Thursday to address electricity-related problems when the confrontation happened.
The exchange began after a resident allegedly called him a criminal.
Morero repeatedly told the resident not to refer to him in that way.
“Don’t call me a criminal,” he said several times.
“I am not a criminal. Don’t do that again; you are an adult.”
He then used profanity during the exchange.
“You are talking sh*t,” Morero told the resident.
“If you don’t respect others, we also have the capacity to show disrespect.”
Morero later apologised for his conduct and said emotions had run high during the meeting.
According to the mayor, the situation escalated after one of the residents called him a criminal.
“I would like to profusely and unconditionally apologise for my utterances which were made this morning at the meeting,” Morero said.
“It should have not been done in that fashion.”
He said he accepted responsibility for the way he handled the matter.
“I take full responsibility,” he said.
Morero added that he had since spoken to the resident involved and that his apology had been accepted at the meeting.
“Over and above, I had a word or two with the resident concerned, and the meeting accepted my apology,” he said.
The meeting took place amid ongoing electricity problems in Tshepisong.
Last month, City Power announced that it had withdrawn all technical restoration and maintenance services from the area.
The utility said the decision followed continued acts of sabotage, widespread illegal connections and repeated unlawful reconnections of infrastructure.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said at the time that 97% of residents in the area were not paying for electricity.
He said the utility had recorded repeated incidents where residents allegedly reconnected newly installed pole-mounted transformers without authorisation.
Residents were also accused of throwing wires onto electricity lines to deliberately trip the network.
During Thursday’s meeting, City Power acting CEO Charles Tlouane gave further details about the extent of non-payment in Tshepisong.
He said the area had about 12,000 registered prepaid electricity clients.
However, only just over 200 customers were actively buying electricity.
Tlouane said about 11,700 customers were classified as non-vending.
“This is a serious concern. One that is not sustainable,” he said.
The electricity crisis in Tshepisong has placed City Power and residents at odds, with the utility insisting that illegal connections and non-payment are damaging infrastructure and making service restoration difficult.
Residents, however, have been demanding that power supply problems be addressed.
Morero’s apology came after the video or details of the heated exchange drew attention to the tone of the engagement between city leaders and residents.
The mayor said his language should not have been used, even under tense circumstances.
The incident has highlighted both the frustration of residents facing electricity problems and the pressure on city officials dealing with illegal connections, infrastructure vandalism and revenue losses.
City Power has maintained that the level of non-payment in Tshepisong is unsustainable and that restoring services without addressing illegal reconnections would continue to undermine the network.
For now, Morero says he has apologised to the affected resident and to the broader meeting.
The dispute over electricity services in Tshepisong remains unresolved.
