DA mayor candidate goes back to roots

Durban - Democratic Alliance Durban mayoral candidate Haniff Hoosen went back to his roots in Chatsworth to encourage the community to register and vote in the coming elections.
Hoosen, who is also a Member of Parliament, went to do house visits in Chatsworth and later had a community meeting at Woodhurst library in the suburb.
One of the people he visited yesterday was Gorrie Durga.
The grandmother, who lives with 20 people in her home, which includes children and grandchildren, said she was suffering ill health.
A tearful Durga said: “We want to get a home.”
Durga said this was made worse by the fact that all 20 of them shared the same pit toilet.
“I have small children and they can fall into the toilet,” she said.
As Durga was talking about the problems she was facing, she started to cry, and her son, Afzal Sheikh, had to calm her.
Sheikh said: “We have been promised many times to pack your bags”. “We pack our bags, but nothing happens.”Sheikh, who also started to break down, said when it rained and started to flood, they suffered, as they had to evacuate their home, and the shelter they were put in was inadequate. “This type of life we don’t need,” Sheikh said.
Rosey Ellapen said she had been voting for the ANC, but this had not done much for her, and had stopped.
She said she had stopped getting her hopes up.
Hoosen said: “It is a depressing story”. No matter how many times you go through these stories, you can’t help but feel desperation... There are thousands of Indian families living in outbuildings around the city.”
He said when he was younger, his mother had applied for housing, but nothing happened until Hoosen and his siblings grew up and they were able to provide for her.
He said the Indian community needed to go out and register to vote to effect change.
He said there was mismanagement of money in the city, and mentioned the councillors’ cruise and Nicki Minaj concert as examples of wasteful expenditure.
“The only thing you can do is to take those bloody crooks out,” he said.
With the recent events around the Nkandla saga, Hoosen said this was the ideal time to vote the ANC out of power.