Durban - If the ANC wants to hound people with links to the National Party, they should “look within their own ranks”, said the DA’s mayoral candidate for eThekwini.
Haniff Hoosen, who is also the DA spokesman of Home Affairs, was responding to a statement issued by the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal which claimed his apartheid past effectively disqualified him from running for the eThekwini mayoral position.
“Skeletons linking the DA to the apartheid-era National Party are once again tumbling out of the closet,” said ANC provincial spokesman, Mdumiseni Ntuli.
“Hot on the heels of Penny Sparrow and Andre Slade comes a prominent DA office bearer touting his racist baggage with a deep sense of pride and satisfaction,” he continued.
Hoosen had been exposed as a full-time, paid organiser for the National Party at a time when Nelson Mandela and many other struggle heroes were imprisoned by the apartheid government – and he confirmed this during a multi-party debate on Radio Al Ansaar last week.
The ANC then called on the DA to publicly apologise to the thousands of activists, and their families, who suffered under the apartheid regime while DA members were on the payroll – and it further called on all DA “apartheid collaborators” to resign from public office.
Reacting, Hoosen pointed out that he left the New National Party for the Independent Party and that it later merged with the DA.
“My values and principles are those reflected in our new constitution…If the ANC wants to chase after those still associated with the NP, they should look within their own ranks and front bench of Parliament,” he said, adding that the NP merged with the ANC more than a decade ago.
Hoosen pointed out that the leader of the NNP, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, had become a minister in the ANC cabinet and that the current Deputy Minister of Sport, Gert Oosthuizen, was a chief whip in the NNP.
The current chairman of the Police Portfolio Committee in Parliament, Francois Beukman, was also a member of the NNP – and some of the past and current ANC councillors in eThekwini had also been members of the NNP, he said, naming Diane Hoorzuk and Sharmaine Morar.
“The ANC’s attack against me shows just how much the ANC has changed. They do not have a plan to create jobs, deliver better services or stop Jacob Zuma’s rampant corruption.
“They are therefore relying on fear and race mongering,” he pointed out.
“This is an affront to the constitution, and the values which Madiba himself stood for,” he said.
Describing himself as a “proud member of the DA”, Hoosen said he remained committed to building a South Africa that belonged to all who live in it and said he would “strive to bring the change through the DA that our city needs to move forward again for all its residents”.