DA announces Ghaleb Cachalia as Ekurhuleni mayoral candidate
Democratic Alliance Gauteng Leader, John Moodey on Tuesday announced Ghaleb Cachalia as the Ekurhuleni mayoral candidate for the 2016 Local Government Elections.
Cachalia was selected by an electoral college preceding the announcement.
Cachalia, who comes from a family with a long history in the ANC and the South African Indian Congress, said he defected from the ANC, because the party chose to defend an individual as opposed to the nation and his party.
"We have watched our values being reduced to rhetoric by the ANC. We have watched our painful history being exploited as a tool to divide South Africans to cover up for the failures of government. We have seen a corrupt elite group use the power of the state to benefit only themselves and their families. We have seen unemployment rise and we have seen too many of our fellow citizens become trapped in poverty," he said.
Cachalia said the time has come to once again find hope and aspiration.
"This is why I stand with the DA and will be campaigning as mayoral candidate to usher in an era of DA government in Ekurhuleni. The DA offers us a new path, where freedom, fairness and opportunity are the values on which we make government work for the people. The DA offers us a chance to make our city a city of jobs and opportunity.
Cachalia said he grew up in a family forged in the struggle against injustice and said he spent many years in exile from the apartheid government.
"My grandfathers, Ebrahim Asvat and Ahmed Cachalia, campaigned with Mahatma Gandhi against injustice. My father, Yusuf Cachalia, was arrested and tried by the apartheid government for civil disobedience and was sentenced for his part in the Defiance Campaign in December 1952. My mother, Amina Cachalia, marched alongside women of all races right here in Germiston in 1952 as part of the Defiance Campaign. She and her comrades were arrested and held in a prison in Boksburg," he said.
Cachalia said the values he learnt from his family guided him throughout his life; non-racialism and reconciliation, the rule of law and human rights, human dignity and the imperative that the government must work for the people and not the other way around.