Durban — An IFP councillor in Phoenix north of Durban has lashed out at the Indian community for complaining to him about service delivery but voting for other parties in the elections last week.
In a hard-hitting letter, he penned to the suburb’s residents on Monday, IFP councillor Jonathan Annipen said he was disappointed that after the IFP had put in a lot of work helping the Indian community, the hard work was not reflected in the vote.
“We have concluded the much anticipated 2024 national and provincial elections and what a process this has been.
“A year ago no one could have predicted that the political landscape of this nation would slide in the direction that it has.
“The advent of the MK Party and permitting independent candidates to stand for election, redefined our politics as we understood it. It caught many off-guard,” Annipen said.
The IFP remained undeterred and will continue serving the people, he said.
“For us, as the IFP team in Phoenix, we remain undeterred. We continued to serve the people of this town with loyalty and integrity and did so with a justified sense of pride. We will continue to serve this community with the same fervency and distinction, albeit with a more guarded approach.
“As many of you already know, the IFP did not perform as well as we (the local leadership) expected.
“It is my personal belief, given the incomparable amount of work the IFP put in throughout Phoenix, our support should have been overwhelmingly greater, but regrettably, this was not the case,” said Annipen.
However, he said he respected the voters’ prerogative to vote for the current political complexion, which has failed them, adding that he has no complaints about that.
To ensure that he safeguards the IFP’s position in the town, Annipen announced that going forward, any person who wishes to be attended to at his office must produce proof of voter registration.
“Persons who wish to be attended to via our social media platforms, i.e. our Facebook Page, Instagram and WhatsApp groups, must produce an IFP membership number and must belong to a local branch and attend branch meetings/conferences, etc.
“All persons who join our Ward Based Service Delivery groups will be required to produce their IFP membership number before they are admitted into our groups,” said Annipen.
Speaking to the Daily News on Tuesday, Annipen defended his letter, saying everyone knows that he was a very active councillor when it comes to service delivery.
These mechanisms have become needful to ensure better outcomes for the IFP in the 2026 local government elections, he said, adding that he found it disturbing that despite all his party’s efforts to support Phoenix communities, the same support was not reciprocated during the 2024 general elections.
“I expect that this message will be construed by our opponents as being ‘sore losers’ but it will be seen in days to come that the only losers will be those who voted for the current ward leadership.
“Finally, remember the IFP does not control any of the wards in Phoenix. We have only one councillor deployed to this town. Yet, despite these limitations, we have been able to produce more results for the people of Phoenix than stalwart parties in this community,” said Annipen.
Hitting back, DA provincial chairperson Dean Macpherson said his party rejected attempts by councillor Annipen to punish members of the community for their unwillingness to vote for his political party. It was even worse that he now requires people to provide proof of voting and paying a fee to become a political party member before he assists them. He said this was illegal and clearly in violation of the Code of Conduct for Councillors.
“We call on the councillor to apologise to the community for this course of action he has taken. We will also be referring this matter to the speaker of the eThekwini Municipality for investigation,” said Macpherson.
According to the DA in the province, the party received many votes from the Indian communities in the province making a clean sweep in Phoenix and Chatsworth townships, which are populated by Indian communities.
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Daily News