DA's Haniff Hoosen pledges to transform eThekwini

AFTER a 30-year career in politics and a brief hiatus, Haniff Hoosen returns as the DA mayoral candidate for eThekwini with bold promises. Last week, the DA announced that the 53-year-old, who was born in Chatsworth, as the party's mayoral candidate for eThekwini in the 2086 local government elections. The POST reporter, Nadia Khan, spoke to Hoosen about his return to politics and his vision for the city

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HANIF Hoosen meets with the community of Chatsworth, his hometown.

(Independent Newspapers Archives)

Q: Once a prominent voice in the DA, you seemed to have vanished from South Africa's political landscape. What happened to you and what have you been doing since stepping away from the public eye?

A: I retired from active politics for a short period to concentrate on my business interests. During this period, I travelled outside the country. However, I remained active as a DA member and member of the provincial executive committee of the party in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). Although I may have been absent from the political scene for a short period, my commitment towards fighting for change in South Africa did not stop.

Q: Why did you accept the nomination as the DA's mayoral candidate for eThekwini? What changes do you think your leadership will bring to the residents of eThekwini, who are bearing the brunt of service delivery challenges and infrastructure failures?

A: As an active leader of the DA for more than 20 years, we have been working hard to bring change to our city, and we did whatever we could to stop the massive corruption in the eThekwini Municipality. That is why I stood for mayor in 2016. Unfortunately, most residents voted for the ANC. Zandile Gumede was elected as the mayor for the ANC and she is now charged for R320 million tender fraud. I am still here fighting for the residents and not for myself.

If voters supported me and the DA in 2016, we would have been able to save this city from the massive corruption under this leadership. We would not have had the water and sewer crises that we find in our city today.

Since 2016 our city has deteriorated to the extent that communities go without water for weeks on end. This is due to the city's poor maintenance record and high levels of corruption and mismanagement.