Wendy Jasson da Costa
DA activists based in Chatsworth have accused the party of internal electoral irregularities while vetting candidates for the local government elections.
But the party has dismissed the claims as “absolute lies” and “sour grapes”.
Errol Walters, 72, who served on the party’s electoral college, said it was rife with nepotism and cronyism.
He said some councillors in eThekwini had been imposed on voters and “parachuted” on to the final list of PR candidates.
He said when his claims were put to DA members, he was dismissed as a “troublemaker” who was upset that his friends had not become candidates. According to Walters, PR councillors who originally failed to make the grade were Roy Pillay, Sharon Chetty, Kanagie Pillay and Chris van den Berg.
The 15-member electoral college interviewed 99 candidates in January. In the first round of interviews, 29 failed to make the grade, including the four, Walters said. However, Roy and Kanagie Pillay and Chetty later appeared on the final PR list.
Van den Berg also made it, albeit through a different process, by becoming a ward councillor, Walters said.
“The people responsible for this shocking manipulation should be disciplined,” said Walters, in a letter to top DA members.
The letter, signed by three other DA members, stated that the names of the councillors had been imposed on the list before it had been submitted to the provincial selection panel “without their or our knowledge
. Parachuting was outlawed at the provincial congress in October 2009”, the letter said.
Walters said Sharon Chetty, who lives in Durban North, to the knowledge of DA activists in Chatsworth, had not campaigned there but had found favour because her husband was DA/ID MP Haniff Hoosen, who was “virtually in control of the constituency”.
Walters said Van den Berg became the DA’s choice for Ward 65 because his wife, Sandra, worked for the DA. He further alleged that councillor Kanagie Pillay was known to be close to Sharon Chetty.
Roy Pillay, DA constituency chairman in the Durban south area, apparently knew he was number eight on the final PR list before it was officially released, he claimed.
Walters said despite trying to contact people in the party hierarchy to express his concern, he had not received any answers and decided to go public. He said the ANC and IFP had also imposed councillors on their members and the result had been internal revolt.
“Where is the transparency in the DA?” he asked in another letter apparently sent to the DA leadership.
But DA provincial leader Sizwe Mchunu said: “It’s absolute, absolute lies.”
Mchunu said he had been part of the selection process and all four councillors had gone through the proper processes. There were appeal mechanisms in place, but no one from Chatsworth had appealed. “This appears to be people who are aggrieved they didn’t make it… it’s sour grapes,” said Mchunu.
He had high praise for all four councillors, saying their community and party work spoke for itself.
Kanagie Pillay said she had worked free of charge for members of her community and had even received an award from the party for community work.
A dumbstruck Van den Berg said he would rather not comment.
Chetty said she had followed the process like everyone else and the party had decided where to place her.
“If my husband had a hand in this, I would not have had to go through the process. I would have got in through the back door,” she said.
Roy Pillay, who has been in the DA for the past 11 years and serves on its provincial executive committee and provincial management committee, would not comment.