Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero has lauded his “bomb squad” team for its efforts in ramping up service delivery efforts.
Morero introduced the “bomb squad” as part of a turnaround strategy to tackle the city’s dire state, focusing on issues such as potholes, land invasion and illegal migrants.
The intervention team is led by 73-year-old veteran Snuki Zikalala and by various former and current senior officials with extensive experience in the city.
Morero announced the team at his state of the city address, describing them as “his eyes and ears” on the ground. It was established in June 2025 as a centralised hub for high-impact, high-visibility service delivery acceleration.
“In its first 100 days, the team has shown decisive leadership, seamless co-ordination and measurable improvements across the city’s service delivery ecosystem,” he said.
Morero said the bomb squad had become the city’s fastest-acting mechanism, reducing the time between incident reporting and the final resolution of issues.
He said that since June, the team has achieved an 86% resolution rate across 42 major escalations, processed 724 service cases, and completed 89% of restorations on the same day — even in some of the most complex service environments across the metro.
Morero said his cohort operates through an inside-out governance rhythm.
“The bomb squad operates through daily and weekly mayoral service delivery, and finance war rooms bring together myself, the city manager, the COO and the heads of all municipal entities. These platforms help the city track revenue collection, which now exceeds R200m a day, unblock capital expenditure challenges, and ensure that we are audit-ready, disciplined and service-focused.”
Outside the organisation, Morero said, the street war room interventions take senior leadership directly into communities.
“Through the ‘Show Up, Show Out’ walkabout model, multi-department teams deliver immediate and visible progress — restorations that residents can witness and verify on the spot. This approach has united eight of the city’s key entities into a single, co-ordinated response system, ensuring that escalation, decision-making and closure processes are fast, transparent and verifiable.
According to the mayor, the results of the team’s work are visible across all regions of the city.
He said in the Bara Precinct and Dobsonville in Region D, the bomb squad had restored parks, pruned overgrown trees, repaired sewers, removed illegal structures and rehabilitated bridges.
In Yeoville and the De Villiers Street corridor in Region F, he said illegal electricity connections had been dismantled, and a seven-year water blockage was resolved within just 24 hours.
“In Alexandra and Ivory Park in Region A, the bomb squad restored power to 1,200 households in a single day, supported progress on the BRT system along Rivonia Road, and reopened swimming pools and community sports facilities. In Roodepoort, Region C, illegal trading hotspots, scrapyards and major dumping sites have been dismantled through co-ordinated enforcement operations. Residents are already feeling these efforts,” he said.
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