eThekwini Ratepayers Political Movement registers as a party to make Durban "lukker again"

IN A SHIFT towards activism and governance, the eThekwini Ratepayers Political Movement has officially registered as a political party to participate in the upcoming Local Government Elections (LGE). Their aim - to make Durban "lukker again".

Guided by an ambitious vision of transforming service delivery and rejuvenating eThekwini, the eThekwini Ratepayers Political Movement's interim leader, Asad Gaffar, said they would challenge traditional political structures and advocate for residents' needs. 

The party is an extension of eThekwini Ratepayers Protest Movement, which was conceived as a response to overwhelming requests from the Westville Ratepayers Association to create an umbrella group that would advocate for better service delivery across eThekwini.

Comprising various ratepayer, resident, and community forum associations from neighborhoods, including North Beach, Asherville, and Upper Highway, the protest movement positioned itself as a collective voice for the city's residents.

Gaffar, who is the chairman of the protest movement, told the POST there was a growing discontent with existing political parties with elected officials often prioritising party agendas over the needs of their constituents. 

"The decision to form the political movement was taken last year. The continuous service delivery failures and failed promises with the current political parties have forced us into this space. We have already registered with the IEC and have started a process to recruit. We have come across some really great leaders, who feel the same as us. They too want to bring about a positive change; a change from the current system that is not working," said Gaffar. 

He added that they were "deliberately looking for candidates with no track record". 

The reason: "We don't want tainted politicians. Also, our city is collapsing. It's failing. We want to make Durban lukker again."

Gaffar said the party would not consider entering into coalitions and that funding would "not be a deterrent to us".

"We are confident we will be able to raise our own funds to fund our own campaign. We will however accept donations without a quid pro quo."

He said they believed a civic body could perform well as they: understand the needs of the people, are not bound by a party political agenda, and are close to people. 

The eThekwini Ratepayers Protest Movement, he said, had taken up some key issues on behalf of residents in eThekwini. 

This included: challenging the indigent policy and getting the municipality to review the qualifying criteria; facilitating the collection of refuse during the municipal strike; and assisting individuals on a daily basis with their billing queries and facilitating to have them resolved. 

"We also took the municipality to court on the 6kl backdated issue and won. We ran a successful boycott campaign against the municipality and withheld our funds for three months; and we monitor outages and pressure the municipality to have them resolved within the accepted times set by themselves." 

The final elections date has not yet been announced.

THE POST