“THE ANC of Jacob Zuma is not the ANC of Nelson Mandela. We have been betrayed.”
These are the sentiments shared by the Democratic Alliance’s mayoral candidate Ghaleb Cachalia, who was announced by the DA in Germiston on Tuesday morning last week.
Cachalia abandoned his ANC roots to join the opposition. He is the son of late struggle stalwarts Yusuf and Amina Cachalia.
His father Yusuf was arrested and tried by the apartheid government for civil disobedience and sentenced for his part in the Defiance Campaign in December 1952.
Amina was a part of the 1952 women’s Defiance Campaign in Germiston. (She was also proposed to by the late Nelson Mandela, before he married Graça Machel, but declined the offer.)
Cachalia, who helped his late mother write her autobiography ‘When Hope and History Rhyme’, spent many years in exile from the apartheid government.
Feeling betrayed by the ANC government, he explained why he now stands with the DA.
“We have watched our values being reduced to rhetoric by the ANC. We have seen a corrupt elite group use their power of the state to benefit themselves and their families,” Cachalia said to a room filled with DA activists.
As he continued to speak about the rise in unemployment and how South Africans have become trapped in poverty, murmurs of ‘yes’ and heads nodding in agreement could be heard and seen.
“This is why I stand with the DA, because it offers a new path where freedom, fairness and opportunity are values on which we make government work for the people. The DA offers a chance to make our city a city of jobs and opportunity.”
As an entrepreneur who has been involved in running family businesses and beyond, including multinationals and global consultancies, the mayoral candidate believes he can bring this experience with him to help run “an efficient and tidy ship”.
“Our city must be open for business. We must roll out the red carpet for investors who want to create jobs and grow our economy, We must make sure that start-ups and small businesses in particular have the right incentives and support.”
What the DA will do, according to Cachalia, is deliver, instead of providing the people with lengthy plans paid for by very expensive consultants.
“Today, the biggest injustice is that we do not provide economic opportunity to all. The dignity of a job must not be denied to anyone. We will grow the economy and we will create hundreds of thousands of jobs,” he said.
