Many residents from the plush Eldoglen Security Estate (near Laudium) have expressed disappointment at the outcome of a recently held controversial election.
Some have accused the new chairperson, Aboo Baker Gani and director of the HOA, Mohamed Ali Ahmed of misleading those who gave them proxies, sowing division within the Indian community and more particularly the Muslim community. The pair who are known to be ardent supporters or members of a world Memon group, have also been accused of having double standards, by not voting for the Memon women who also stood for elections, despite having at least three votes which they chose not to exercise.
in the spirit of unity, with the various candidates, despite having strong links with their family members from Laudium days.
This follows the Eldoglen Home Owners Association (HOA), which is the controlling body of the estate, holding its AGM last month, at the estate’s clubhouse. The agenda for the AGM included the election of 7 directors to form a new board or committee to oversee the affairs of the HOA. Certain homeowners (residents) who were not pleased with the manner in which the old committee was run, including the apparent using of delaying tactics before approving simple building plans for house alterations, appealed to the broader Eldoglen community to participate in the AGM personally and even consider making themselves available to stand for elections, in order to have some new ‘blood,’ in the HOA. Subsequently five residents of ‘new blood’ and who came from professional and corporate backgrounds, bringing expertise in finance, law, engineering and technology showed an interest in standing for the elections and what was more exciting to many, was that for the first time, three out of the five candidates were women. However, an old click of four residents who served on the previous HOA, decided to also stand for elections and were in fact already collecting ‘proxies’ from residents before the intention of the new five names were even made known. Strangely, after the nomination forms of the five residents were sent, the controversial ‘henchman’ and office manager of the estate, Firoze Amod took his time to even acknowledge receipt of the forms, but issued a statement soon thereafter giving a short timeline for all voting proxies to be handed in. Despite appeals for extended time by those supporting the five candidates, who had just made themselves available to stand for elections, their appeal was rejected by the said ‘henchman.’
However it was only after legal threats that Firoze Amod then issued another statement days later, giving more time for proxies to be handed over, after apparently taking legal advice. But by then not much could be done by the ‘five’ as the AGM was drawing closer and many residents had already given their proxies to the group of four, led by Aboo Baker Gani and Mohamed Ali Ahmed.
UNITY
After nominations for the director positions closed, certain interested parties on behalf of the five approached both Baker and Mohamed Ali with the intention to work out a ‘deal’ in the interest of not dividing the homeowners over an election, as many are connected to each other as family and friends. However Ali rejected the proposal of a meeting and Baker was also not interested despite appeals made to him not to divide the close knit community of Eldoglen, especially those from the Indian community who had a special bond with each other, as most of them were brought up in Laudium, attending the same schools and social events. One of the women from the group of five, then decided to rather withdraw her nomination, leaving two women standing for election and making it four candidates on each side. Some residents suggested that a certain ‘Oosie’ should withdraw his nomination as he had previously served as a director, but apparently was not very helpful to the HOA. This would have resulted in the remaining seven candidates automatically being elected as directors without an election, thus without any division amongst the homeowners, but it was not to be. Oosie did not withdraw his nomination and in fact was supported by either Baker or Ali, thus one of the females, did not make it, while the other made it by just one vote.
Homeowner, Farid Tayob (Fudi) told the Laudium Sun, “The recent election of the Eldoglen HOA, was a disaster. From the time the AGM was announced, to the proxy story of a deadline and then the deadline date being withdrawn, to the vote counting which was not done in front of the voters or the candidates, but counted at some secret place by a fellow homeowner, who was certainly not an independent or impartial person, with the results given a few days later. A few of us tried to make a settlement between the two contesting parties to avoid an election and more so to avoid disunity, but Mohamed Ali and his group did not seem to be interested. While the new group gave their about 27 proxies in favour of Mohamed Ali, Baker and Pottie, it was disappointing to note that the same was not reciprocated as Ali and Baker seemed to have had around 100 proxies, which they used to vote for themselves and Pottie. It seems that either Baker or Ali did not give their proxies to Oosie as he was not liked by many who seemed to have seen him as ‘deadwood.’ It is clear that both Baker and Ali chose not to give their proxies to any one of the four from the new group, but rather let it go to waste as they could vote for seven people.”
Meanwhile certain residents who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals accused Ali and Baker of being anti-woman or anti-Indian and choosing to divide the Indian community in Eldoglen, by making a point that they would not vote for any other Indians besides themselves. One of the homeowners who gave his proxy to Mohamed Ali, said he was disappointed that Ali did not use his proxies to support the two women, but rather let them go to waste, adding, “I was not explained about the voting procedure and even who the candidates were or who my proxy vote
would go to. I feel as if I was exploited by Mohamed Ali, who I trusted, but he certainly let me down.”
