Democracy is not consolidating and deepening in the Western Cape as claimed by analysts and the recent win for the DA is not sustainable and it is just a result of a knee jerk reaction by the voters of the Western Cape previously disenfranchised and a determined effort of those voters who always had the vote who all came out to vote. The Afrikaner whites were very comfortable under Mandela and Thabo Mbeki as they became four times richer under an ANC government. With a Zuma government English speaking whites are going to catch up as the influence of Stellenbosch University whizz kids in the Treasury and the Reserve bank will wane and the English legal eagles who helped Zuma get off the hook call in the chips on behalf of their interest group.
While Mandela promised that all Blacks will equally benefit from affirmative action which includes Indians and Coloureds, a year before Polokwane the Minister of Labour introduced a regulation that for every Coloured and Indian worker employed two Africans must be employed to get credits for substantive compliance in terms of annual Employment Equity reports which is normally submitted in October each year. This regulation has now been vigorously applied by employers keen on government contracts and points for BEEE and Indians and Coloureds especially in the Western Cape have felt it severely. Many employers have stopped employing Coloureds and Indians and only Africans to prepare for a five to one ratio in the future. Hardly any Coloureds or Indians in the Western Cape vote for the ANC anymore so they must favour their voters. For many years during apartheid the Cape was a coloured preferential employment area so this is seen as one way to redress the imbalances of the past.
Now that Muslims who form a large segment of the so called Coloured and Indian voters have chosen to vote for the DA who is largely a white controlled Party if one counts the heads and look at the faces in power the question is whether this will continue in the future. AL JAMA-AH would like to believe that this will change and we will see these changes in the 2011 municipal elections. It has to change if we want to avoid a black backlash against those who “helped put the whites in power”. We had a taste for this when another Muslim Party used their 3 votes to kick out Nomaindia of the ANC and install Helen Zille of the DA as mayor of Cape Town. “Ma slams what can we expect” is what she said and this message went out into the townships. Not long afterwards we had the zenophopic attacks when largely Muslims were murdered.
While AL JAMA-AH is into the third year of its seven year plan to play an educational role to get Muslims to play a more meaningful role in the political life of the country it realises it has to speed up its campaigns to avoid further estrangement between Muslims and Africans especially in the Western Cape. For starters the Party will call on Muslim bricklayers and plasterers and other artisans not to tease their African workers and colleaques about the ANC loss in the Western Cape. The party has engaged with Robben Islanders for advice and is considering a permanent base in Delft where Africans and Muslims live side by side. The Party leader has been accepted as a member of the Delft Farmers Association who produce vegetables and wants to help the Association get Muslim business men to buy from them. The Association has agreed to employ three unemployed Muslims in Delft as farm workers. What has encouraged AL JAMA-AH is the strong support of the MJC for it to carry on with its educational role and the fact that members of the MJC has offered to help in this regard. A letter to the Editor in the last issue of Muslim Views has given the party further encouragement when the writer wrote:
“ As a Black Muslim South African, I, in my personal capacity , find only brothers Manelisi Mampane of the PAC and Ganief Hendricks of the AL JAMA-AH political party to be parties that are truly humane and prepared to face the gauntlet to stand for what they believe in. I sincerely make duah that Allah in his infinate Wisdom helps them succeed in their endeavours for a better place for all humans on earth.”
Imam Sulaiman of Mamelodi in Pretoria has called and asked the Party not to wait too long to strenghten bonds and to join hands with African Muslims in the many townships which are waiting for them and whose elders who have already met to endorse the Party. Farouk Modisane a veteran activist who was born in Newclare in the ‘Malay” township of Newclare but grew up in Soweto has joined the party as an NEC member.
Just like the Muslims were the voice of many of the oppressed in the 18th century it has the opportunity to once again ask them to “CLAIM YOUR MUSLIM VOICE “.