Set against the backdrop of the beautiful and serene River Range Ranch, in Verulam, the Minority Front (MF) launched their 2021 Local Government Election manifesto on Friday, 1 October, with the slogan “Your Voice and Choice in Council”.
Under the leadership of a devoted public servant, Honourable Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi, the MF will be contesting all 111 wards in eThekwini and all 41 wards in Msunduzi. The launch started with prayers and paying respects and honour to the party’s former leader, the late Amichand Rajbansi. The MF was formed by the “Bengal Tiger” in 1993. He passed away in 2011. With 28 years of experience, the MF is poised to make a stronger comeback whilst saying “no to racism, violence and corruption”. Thakur-Rajbansi is an MBA graduate with a second Masters in Public Management. She has a passion for politics and working at grassroots level. She comes from a medical background and has been the recipient of many local and international awards and accolades, especially for her humanitarian work. She strives to be a voice for women, children, the disabled and vulnerable, and a mentor to young people. Thakur-Rajbansi said that the MF has always stood for promoting the dignity, human rights and cultural well-being for all, while specifically protecting minorities. “The MF rejects all forms of dictatorship, which racially divides citizens through unfair policies like Affirmative Action and quotas. The MF’s strength is its perseverance towards social cohesion and nation-building activities, to live and prosper in an inclusive society, thereby achieving our aspirations through equal opportunities.”
The demands of the MF are correcting electricity, water and rates billing, fixing ageing infrastructure, employing more metro police, improving local clinic conditions, paying community policing forum members, paying neighbourhood watches, removing slums, building decent houses for all, protecting playlots, fixing crematoria, creating local jobs for all, improving public transport and investing in climate change response. Thakur-Rajbansi said that with the MF, voters have a tried and tested party that works at grassroots, accounts to the people and is a servant of the people. “The MF will fight tooth and nail to ensure that our metro never becomes lawless, hurting honest citizens again,” she said. The MF will, amongst other things, fight to finalise investigations and fire corrupt officials, to blacklist corrupt tenderpreneurs, clearing out slums, empowering community police forums and neighbourhood watches, ensuring council allocates budgets for capital infrastructure, strengthening laws on air and water polluting industries, improving local clinic conditions, expanding the fire brigade facilities, reducing unfair property rates, electricity and water bills by overhauling the capacity and infrastructure, building affordable and suitable homes for different socio-economic needs, provision of local jobs by matching skills to jobs, investment in IT systems and social media platforms to meet requirements of ratepayers, reliable, safe and affordable public transport systems in the city, protection of the beaches and rivers with the allocation of prayer sites for religious purposes. Thakur-Rajbansi said she has used every platform to denounce the use of the phrase “The Phoenix Massacre”, which made the minority Indian community scapegoats for no reason. She said that the MF has requested, in the KZN Legislature, that all videos and audio clips which incited violence via social media to be examined, monthly investigation progress reports on the “Chaos Causing Toolkit” and recovery of stolen ammunition (more than 1.5 million live ammunition rounds) and social cohesion and moral regeneration programmes investment to build trust, harmony and peace. This violence reminds us of the critical nature of human identity, economic class, ethnicity and the politics thereof. On 1 November, remember the ongoing unrest and riots our communities have faced and choose peace and political stability when voting,” said Thakur-Rajbansi.
