Once more, ANC Councillor Naeem Patel has been accused of dividing the community according to political affiliation.
This follows Naeem playing politics for his own selfish reasons, when he used the pro Palestine march that took place this past Sunday (Oct 12), to promote himself and mainly the ANC.
Clearly, the community picked up on Naeem’s ‘divide and rule policy,’ resulting in many residents staying away from the march. In what has been described as one of the lowest turnouts for a pro-Palestine march, there were only between 250-300 protestors who gathered in the Laudium CBD parking area to listen to all the speeches, which were mainly delivered by ANC members, with the main religious leaders in the community, conspicuously absent.
The march, led by the well-known Pretoria Muslim Youth Brigade, drew only about 700 supporters, despite buses being brought in from nearby Itireleng and Johannesburg to ferry in protesters. Immediately after the march, which ended at the Laudium CBD, the majority of protestors walked away and were not interested in listening to the speeches. Many members of the around 70 organizations who supposedly endorsed the march, according to Patel, were also absent, along with leading religious leaders from the various faiths. Notably, Mufti Hazarvi and his assistant were present at the PMT grounds, as they came to perform prayers at the Mosque.
The Ldm CPF, under the ‘watch’ of ANC member Shaheen Wahab, which was actively involved in the march, once more took the law into their own hands by ‘attacking’ a taxi driver, during the march, despite numerous police officers being present escorting the protesters. Shaheen also tried to intimidate others at the march, using threatening words, clearly looking for a fight. The poor attendance has been attributed by many, to the arrogant attitude that ANC Cllr Naeem Patel and Laudium CPF Secretary Mohamed Noor, displayed, acting as ‘school principals’ and dictating who could attend or not, despite the march being held in a public space with an open invitation. This controversy follows the denial of free access to Cllr Prajay Ramjee (known to actively support the Palestinian cause in his personal capacity) and others. Naeem stated that Cllr Prajay can attend the public march, providing he publically denounces his party, ActionSA, for supporting Israel. This, despite Patel sending a WhatsApp message to all his supporters in the area to congratulate the ActionSA Mayor in the Tshwane Council who he and his party supported.
During the previous march at least 5,000 protesters from all religious backgrounds actively took part in a show of unity, to support the oppressed people of Palestine.
Calls are now being made that Cllr Patel should not be allowed at any religious functions until he denounces the ANC’s support for abortion, gambling and other vices, which have been made legal under the ANC government.