A DA member who is hoping to be re-elected as a Chatsworth ward councillor has been accused of failing to pay his bills and rent.
|||Durban - A by-election in Chatsworth, due on Wednesday, is hotting up as accusations of unpaid utility bills and rent, and of “vote buying” against two of the contenders for the ward, fly thick and fast.
A newly minted DA member who is hoping to be re-elected as a Chatsworth ward councillor has been accused of failing to pay his utility bills and rent since July.
And Ismail Cassimjee, who left the MF in September - he was the party’s ward 70 councillor – was using a rented property in Chatsworth that had its electricity box and water connection tampered with, his fed-up landlord, Rabinranath Adhar Latchman, has claimed.
Latchman said: “I received a penalty of R753 on my bill for tampering. I did not get to meet Cassimjee about this because he has not taken my calls.” He said he could not say who had tampered with the electricity or water connections.
Cassimjee has denied the claims, blaming outside political forces.
And the DA’s KZN chairman, Haniff Hoosen, has sprung to his defence, accusing political foes of resorting to dirty tricks in a desperate attempt to discredit Cassimjee.
The Independent Electoral Commission has confirmed that the ward is also being contested by the ACDP, ANC, Cope, the IFP and the MF.
“Instead of fighting Cassimjee, the opposition parties should fight for the people on the ground,” Hoosen said. “We are aware that a political party was paid R50 000 to start a smear campaign against Cassimjee.”
On Friday, allegations surfaced that Cassimjee owed the eThekwini Municipality R21 000 for water and lights since July. This resulted in the meter box being removed by the municipality. He also allegedly has not paid Latchman rent since July, R2 500 a month, for the house he lived in with his family in Sunkist Road, Chatsworth.
Cassimjee moved out of the house two weeks ago.
The eThekwini Municipality Speaker, Logie Naidoo, confirmed that he had received a letter of complaint from Chatsworth ward 70 residents against Cassimjee on Saturday.
He said that an official investigation would be conducted today. Officials from the electricity department would also be interviewed, he said.
Naidoo said Cassimjee was already being investigated for not handing over his office keys after his resignation.
He said Cassimjee allegedly used his former office in Florence Nightingale Drive, which was paid for by the city, to canvass for his new political party, the DA.
In another twist, the DA yesterday laid a charge of breaching the Electoral Act against Rajendran Pather, the ANC candidate in the ward.
The DA claimed Pather went up on stage during a senior citizens’ party, held at the Multicultural Centre in Chatsworth, and pleaded with those present to vote for him.
The DA said he handed out T-shirts and food parcels, saying that these were provided by the ANC.
However, the DA said the food parcels were paid for with ratepayers’ money
Police spokesman, Colonel Jay Naicker, said a case of an agent or candidate attempting to induce or influence a person to vote for a particular party had been opened at the Chatsworth SAPS.
Pather referred all media enquires to Visvin Reddy, who said he was now a Chatsworth activist.
Reddy said it was a municipal function in ward 70 which, he pointed out, had no councillor. He called it a knee-jerk reaction to Cassimjee’s electricity tampering exposure. He denied that any politicking by Pather had taken place at the function.
The DA’s Dianne Kohler Barnard wrote to the auditor-general, asking that Pather’s alleged abuse of municipal funds be investigated.
“The function was paid for by ratepayers. The pensioners of ward 70 believed this was their usual municipal senior citizens’ function,” she said.
Daily News