The dawn of a new era in social activism has begun as Active Citizens Coalition (ACC) launched their manifesto with a focus on entrusting power of governance to the people they will be leading.
With the motto “Bringing truism back into politics”, the fledgling party will be contesting 80 wards in the eThekwini Municipality at the Local Government Elections (LGE) on 1 November. The party will be contesting the 2021 LGE only in the eThekwini region. The party was registered on 1 November 2019 and launched their manifesto at Sica’s West House, Westridge on Wednesday, 29 September. Durban-born businessman, Imtiaz Syed, president of the party, said that the party’s work on activism began about a decade ago with eThekwini Secure, eThekwini Outreach, Abantu Abahlangene Against Crime and the eThekwini Joint Ratepayers’ Association. “ACC aims to move towards clean wards that are free of crime, grime and pollution – wards that are for the people, by the people.”
Syed was groomed from the streets of eThekwini and has been involved in mobilisation of communities for the past 15 years. “Through understanding the plight of the people and coming up with different ways to address problems, initially in the space of crime fighting as a priority and thereafter evolving into a holistic all-encompassing civic rights movement under many different banners and caps.” Syed said their launch was the beginning of change. “It’s been 27 years and people have become despondent. They have lost confidence in the bigger parties because national parties are not on the ground. For the local government elections, voters need to vote for a person capable and who will make a difference. We need to be in the grassroots and we are building ourselves,” said Syed.
ACC’s basic tenets speak of ward development based on “inspect, understand and rectify”. They intend to address areas such as electricity, water, rates, job creation and employment, homelessness, environment, parks and recreation, ward community and youth development, social cohesion, inclusion of people with physical and intellectual disabilities, social development and outreach, community economic development, safety and security and land. Mohammed Ismail, secretary-general of the party, said the party identifies with the needs of the people. “We want to re-awaken the spirit of activism to get people involved as active citizens in the wards. No longer should politicians be speaking on their behalf. You, the people, need to speak up for yourself and tell us what is affecting you,” he said. The principles of ACC are of belonging and participation, respect, empowerment, collective action and activism, communication and sustainability and the goals of creating a vision and contributing to a plan, speaking out, taking responsibility and participating in the development of solutions and building capacity. “We hope to win many wards and we will make a change,” added Ismail.
