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The DA has announced Mohammed Haniff Hoosen as its mayoral candidate for eThekwini Municipality.
Hoosen, who hails from Chatsworth, has served in the National Assembly as the party’s constituency MP for Durban.
He has become much more visible since his introduction as mayoral candidate, campaigning on issues of safety and the cleanliness of the city.
He has also been working with minority and African communities in a bid to boost his profile.
Hoosen said the key challenges for the city would be to address the “historical corruption” that had plagued eThekwini under a series of ANC administrations, and to ensure that funds were redirected to improve the municipality’s service delivery capacity.
“We need to get people in the city working to boost its ability to help create jobs,” he said. “We are not going to be able to do this as long as the historical corruption is not addressed.
“Every cent needs to be directed towards improving the standard of service delivery, which has been sliding, as well as our ability as a municipality to contribute towards creating job opportunities.”
Hoosen added that internal battles in the ANC over contracts had resulted in the slide, with simple tasks, such as the cutting of grass, being neglected.
Hoosen did a five-year stint as an Independent Democrats councillor in the eThekwini metro, rising through the party ranks to become its national campaign manager in 2006.
He became the party’s secretary-general the following year and was elected to the National Assembly in 2008. He has served as the DA’s shadow minister for home affairs since June 2014.
The DA hopes that he will help the party consolidate the strong gains made in Durban’s working-class Indian communities in 2011 and in the provincial election in 2014.
The party also anticipates that he will be able to exploit the implosion of the Minority Front after the death of its founding leader, Amichand Rajbansi.
