Durban - The Indian vote in eThekwini Metro will be hotly contested in this year’s municipal elections as a new party aiming to canvass it launched its manifesto in the heartland of Phoenix on Thursday.
The newly-formed party, the Democratic Liberal Congress (DLC), pulled a surprise when it managed to pack the Shastri Park hall to capacity on a weekday.
It is a breakaway from the Minority Front, and will contest all wards in the eThekwini metro and KwaDukuza local municipalities.
South Africans go to the polls on August 3 to elect councillors for municipalities.
At Thursday's launch, church leaders threw their weight behind the party and described Patrick Pillay, who has been a councillor for about 15 years, as one of their own.
Referring to the community’s admiration, Pillay said it showed that when you served the people with love, they gave you love in return.
“The love you give to me, now and into the future, is something I will never forget,” he said.
Pillay presented his party as different to those that approached voters during the “silly” election season – and later did nothing for them.
“The DLC was not founded by silly people who don’t work for you and do not serve you,” he said, before warning his audience about being used by other parties.
Pillay charged that the current government did not have the capacity to deliver housing because of corruption and jobs for pals.
“DLC will fight for better housing opportunities. We will fight for a housing waiting list because currently there is no waiting list, and anyone can get a house.”
His party would ensure that there was a register for indigent people and that free basic services were extended to the unemployed.
This, he said, also applied to widows, who it envisages should benefit from the rates rebate.
The party promises to push the municipality to provide ratepayers with title deeds for their houses.
It also wants affirmative action and any quotas that discriminated against the different racial groups scrapped.
Pillay said this party wanted “neglected” suburbs to be developed and that services be delivered by the municipality, and not wait for people to first complain.
Pastor Nivien Lalmund said Pillay was following his passion to serve the people.
“You do it from your heart and God is to take you to places,” Lalmund said.
Pastor Saxon Jacob said: “He never appeared in the newspaper for wrong things. He does not have a family life. His family is Phoenix.”