Ebrahim Moosa – Radio Islam | 02 August 2016

Despite its humble beginnings, the Al Jama-ah political party is optimistic about this municipal election and is keenly looking forward to the polls to grow its support base and forward its mandate.

Party chairperson and PR councillor in the Johannesburg Metro, Abdul Razak Noorbhai, told Radio Islam that the grouping has only seen growth since its entry into the political scene in 2007.

Since then, Al Jama-ah has contested two national elections, in 2009 and 2014 respectively; and one municipal election, in 2011.

Its fate at the polls has not been spectacular, but the party believes – given its nascent age and limited resources – that it has achieved several milestones that bode well for its future trajectory.

In 2009, on its national debut, Al Jama fell short of securing a seat in parliament by just 10 000 votes. In 2011, the party managed to obtain representation on both Cape Town and Johannesburg’s city council’s. And in 2014, it emerged as the fifth largest political force in the hotly contested Western Cape province.

This year, Al Jama is in the running for municipalities in 3 provinces: the City of Cape Town in the Western Cape, the cities of Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni in Gauteng, and the cities of Ethekwini, Pietermaritzburg and Escourt amongst others in Kwazulu Natal. The party has also thrown the unregistered NFP a lifeline in KZN, by offering it access to power through the conduit of Al Jama-ah in NFP strongholds.

Noorbhai explained that al Jama-ah did not have individual candidates for every ward it was contesting. Instead, the party had registered its few candidates over several wards. In the event of of one of its candidates winning more than one ward, he said, by-elections would have to be held to firmly determine the new councillor.
The party chairman listed several causes that the party had championed over the preceding municipal term, wherein he believed significant headway had been achieved.
Among these was the advocacy on behalf of Masaajid developments that lay dormant for years in former so-called white areas due to zoning complications, for which Noorbhai claimed councillors affiliated to the official opposition were largely responsible.

The chairman said that they had been relentlessly canvassing information from affected communities and had lobbied the relevant officials from council to respond.
Al Jama-ah had also intervened, he said, in cases where there had been objections to the Athaan, or where water supply to Masaajid had been cut.

Noorbhai cited how his party’s intervention proved critical in soliciting council funds for remedying the seasonal overflowing of the vlei adjoining the Bosmont Masjid that would often flood the mosque grounds; as well as securing a budget for Bosmont to commemorate its centenary just as other townships were afforded.

Noorbhai says his party was also at the forefront of representations to the Johannesburg council and members of national treasury on the concept of Islamic finance, and the resilience that such funding strategy offered in a tough economic climate.

“A Muslim voice from a Muslim-led party is best suited to have Muslim interests at heart,” Noorbhai said.

“Others simply do not identify deeply enough with our concerns”.

At the launch of its election manifesto just prior to Ramadan this year, Al Jama-ah leader Ganief Hendricks indicated that the party had also made successful inroads into the non-Muslim electorate.

“They have given Al-Jama-ah their support, because they are disillusioned by other parties and feel that Al-Jama-ah, with its Islamic ethos, is a platform with which they have no quarrel,” Hendricks told VOC.

Hendricks said the party had clear plans for this year election campaign.

“We want to bring about transformation in the country especially in the Western Cape. We find that we still have polarisation and the residents of the Cape Flats are neglected.”

He explained that the party has employed a new mechanism in which new political science and public policy graduates are standing as candidates.

According to Hendricks, the graduates have ascertained that wards within the City of Cape Town have not been allocated a budget, which he says is operationally necessary.

“They have identified that in the City of Cape Town there are no budgets for the wards. [So] how can you promise service delivery if there is no budget for the wards – there is only a corporate budget that deals with the priorities of the ruling party,” Hendricks continued.

In response to the findings, the party say it intends to develop a budget for each ward.