Laudium’s Ward Councillor Patel, a staunch ANC follower, is evidently together with the ANC, fast losing support in their once strong base of Ward 61.
This follows Patel ‘privately’ urging his supporters to attend a recent ‘report back’ meeting as Councillor in his Ward, with only a handful of his supporters attending. Even members of Patel’s Ward Committee boycotted the meeting, which was held at the Laudium Civic Centre. A video posted on the Laudium Sun’s social media platforms including Facebook, TikTok and Instagram saw retired teacher Yunus Essop lambasting the ANC led Tshwane Council at the meeting for poor service delivery in the area and went viral, with a record reach of over 400k. This, despite Patel trying, but in vain to paint a ‘good picture’ of the Tshwane Council and more so its ANC top Exco members, concerning service delivery in the area. At the meeting, Yunus took the Council officials and politicians to task for misleading the community, by pretending to be on top with service delivery, including falsely claiming to have fixed the many streetlights that have not been working for years and potholes which had become ‘sinkholes.’ Yunus challenged the officials and said he was prepared to take them ‘now’ to show them the many streetlights that were still not working including those on his street, adding that the potholes that had been fixed, were fixed by members of the community, including Cllr Prajay Ramjee of ActionSA. According to many who saw the video on the Laudium Sun social media platforms, Patel was seemingly exposed for his ‘misinformation’ to the community by recently praising the Council for having the streetlights and potholes in the area fixed, with others saying that Patel was
embarrassed as Yunus challenged the Council officials and indirectly Patel therefore Patel was looking down most of the time, playing with his cellphone as Yunus lashed out. Hundreds of followers of the Laudium Sun’s social media platforms, responded to the video, with many praising Yunus for exposing the incompetent ANC led Tshwane Council and Cllr Patel, with one follower, Razia Blanchard stating, “We applaud Mr Essop, so eloquently said. He put this Councillor in his place. Yay.”
Donaven George said, “It’s the same in Gerhardsville. We don’t even see the Ward Councillor (Patel) anymore.” Abigail Novin Pillay alleged in her post, “He must stop talking bad about women, this Naeem Patel. He has no respect for anyone. He is trying to be a dictator. Telling people what to do because he is the Ward Councillor.”
Ramon Pa said, “The ANC is deliberately neglecting coloured and Indian townships, there is no service delivery at all.”
Despite the many unfavourable comments against Cllr Patel, a reader said, “Patel, in response to the hundreds of criticisms against him and the ANC on social media, has once more arrogantly seemingly compared himself with the elegant and honourable Naledi Pandor by recently posting a quote of hers, ‘Sometimes hatred towards you is just a statement that you are good.’ When I read that, I thought of the quote, ‘Beware of the wolf in sheep’s clothing,’ which I thought was appropriate for Patel.”
Nazeer Sheik said, “That’s pretty standard throughout most of the country. ANC does nothing except take the taxpayers money. Makes all the promises but does absolutely nothing. They just need to make sure the social grants are paid, bribes are sorted and hampers are ready for election time in townships once every 5 years so they can continue securing those votes to stay in power.”
Prithi Prav Shah said, “Patel must be ashamed of himself. He should resign immediately.”
Zuleka Esmail said, “2nd ave no lights, entrance of Laudium pot holes, street children begging, woman with children begging at round abouts, Laudium dumping all over we lost value for our beautiful homes very sad.”
Patel’s bodyguard and praise-singer, the ‘dud’ Laudium CPF Chairperson, Shaheen Wahab,
seemingly in response to the criticism against Patel, praised Patel and added, “Who will mention the good, they’re only after the negativity.”
