The large Indian community could tilt the balance in the Kwazulu-Natal elections this month
WHEN Indians arrived in South Africa as indentured labourers, they were rated third-class citizens of the British empire and treated like slaves, much the same as their counterparts were elsewhere in the world at that time. Now, 136 years later, all major political parties are going hammer and tong to woo Indian voters in the run-up to local government elections in the country's most densely populated province, Kwazulu-Natal (KZN), which are scheduled for June 26.
Initially the elections were slated for May 29 but polling had to be postponed due to the on-going violence stemming from animosity between the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which controls KZN and is led by the Zulu chief, Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi, and President Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC), which is in a majority in seven of South Africa's nine provinces.
The Indian community is much in focus as at least 70 per cent of its 1.2 million Indians are settled in KZN, especially in the greater Durban metropolitan region where two sprawling dormitory townships, Chatsworth and Phoenix, have been developed. In the country's first democratic national elections held on April 27, 1994, a majority of the Indians—who account for about 4.5 per cent of the country's population—had voted for the white supremacist National Party, despite its overtly racist policies for more than four decades. Political analysts had put this down to the voters' inclination to go with "the devil you know" and their wariness of the ANC's inexperience in the business of governance.
However, this time round, the National Party, the IFP, the ANC and the Minority Front (a small party which capitalises on the fears of minorities) are actively courting Indians. It is believed that the ANC's failure to deliver on its election promises of "jobs and houses for all" could cost it dearly in Indian votes in the local government polls. Johannesburg-based Professor Bill Johnson says working class Indians in particular are less likely to vote for the ANC. Says he: "Indians expected the ANC to provide cheap housing but it failed to do so. And in the job market, Indians found themselves being displaced by Africans. The ANC's affirmative action programme—to provide jobs for formerly disadvantaged people—is perceived among a majority of working class Indians as not being in their best interests because they are not black enough." On the other hand, middle-class Indians are likely to vote for the ANC because they have secure jobs and suitable housing.
But on the whole, many political observers believe that after two years in power, the ANC cannot be too optimistic of a better showing among Indians on June 26 because of rising crime and violence, high unemployment, squatter problems and the effects of the Reconstruction and Development Programme registering a negligible impact on the ethnic community. But some disagree and argue that Mandela's party will fare better at the polls this time round because over the past couple of years the National Party has lost its mantle of power and its leader, F.W. de Klerk's halo is shining no more.
That then begs the question: where will the Indian votes go? The IFP is hoping for a bigger slice of the Indian vote and besides fielding a large number of Indian candidates, Buthelezi has included several visits to Indian suburbs in his election roadshow.
Meanwhile, the Minority Front is con-fident of grabbing the lion's share of the votes in predominantly Indian areas. Love him or hate him, its leader Amichand Rajbansi is perceived among working-class Indians to be close to the community at a grassroots level. He can articulate their viewpoint better on bread-and-butter issues like jobs, housing, civic amenities and pension problems. Newspaper advertisements for the Minority Front have consistently highlighted the party's determination to resolve Indians' unhappiness over affirmative action. And to suitably tug at the heartstrings of Indians, Rajbansi has promised to fight against the ban on fireworks at Diwali.
Though Indians first arrived here more than 200 years ago, their history in South Africa goes back only till 1860. Between then and 1911, more than 150,000 indentured labourers arrived from the south and east coasts of India to work on the sugar-cane fields in Natal (now called Kwazulu-Natal). Explaining the background to the arrival of indentured labourers from British India, South African sociologist, Professor Fatima Meer, has observed: "White colonialists despaired of exploiting the colony's agricultural resources due to a scarcity of labour. Slavery had been abolished and the Zulus, relatively secure in their tribal economy, refused to market their labour. India, convulsed by British occupation, offered a solution."
A few years later, a new kind of Indian immigrant arrived: the trader from the west coast, who came to be known as the free or passenger Indian, as distinct from the indentured Indian. Later still, the passenger Indians of the merchant class began to arrive in South Africa. They were quick to establish themselves in a variety of businesses.
It was not long before Indians became a hated group. They suffered many trials and tribulations, which were invariably aggravated by harsh working conditions, unequal laws, discrimination and unsympathetic colonials who welcomed them as labourers, but not as settlers and competitors.
By the time Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi left South Africa in 1915, Indians were still not free of all racist legislations which often made their life difficult. But thanks to this minority group's commitment to fight side by side with the oppressed blacks, freedom was eventually
won. Some of the revered names in the freedom struggle included Indians like Al Kajee, P.R. Pather, S.M. Nana, A.M. Cachalia, Yusuf Dadoo, Monty Naicker and Sohrabjee Rustomjee, whose dedication to the quest for liberty was widely recognised.
Like the majority blacks, Indians know only too well the hardship of segregation, having separate residential areas vis-a-vis the Group Areas Act, not being allowed to marry into another racial group, having separate schools and trading areas and not having the franchise. Even today, in a post-apartheid South Africa, Indians remain a politically significant force. Constituting less than 5 per cent of the total population, they have a disproportionately high representation of about 20 per cent in President Mandela's cabinet, including Minister for Transport S.R. "Mac" Maharaj, Minister for Justice A.M.D. Omar, Minister for Water Affairs and Forestry Kader Asmal and Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Jay Naidoo and Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Aziz G.H. Pahad.바카라 웹사이트
The community has also witnessed much cultural change in the past five or six decades. The pattern of life among Indians, so long dictated by a distinct cultural background and governed by orthodoxy, is being shaped anew. And coupled with the revolutionary economic and political changes taking place, Indians seem to all set to make a mark on the new South Africa.