At a press briefing held Wednesday 20 March 2024, the Allied Movement for Change (AM4C) announced its presidential and premier candidates, after stating that it will be contesting the 2024 provincial and national government elections. AM4C has been a registered political party in the Republic of South Africa since 2013.
Member of Parliament, the Honourable Ahmed Munzoor Shaik Emam has been announced as the Party’s Presidential Candidate. Premier Candidates are Western Cape, Mr Faizal Sayed, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Ms Sindisiwe Abegail Mashinini Maphumulo Mr Inayet Wadee; Kwa-Zulu Natal, Ms Sindisiwe Abegail Mashinini Maphumulo; and Gauteng Mr Inayet Wadee.
2024 sees South Africa hold its seventh democratic provincial and national elections. However, these elections come at a difficult time for South Africa’s citizens, when, despite some successes, our young democracy is at risk of manufactured dysfunction.
Low economic growth; the energy crisis; high unemployment; high levels of crime and corruption; state capture; ailing infrastructure and health services; the near collapse of state-owned entities; poor governance; high levels of homelessness; and a lack of skills amongst citizens of working age, are national crises that are exacerbated by social and economic exclusion, and the poor quality of education offered to our citizens.
Not only are our problems soluble in the short to medium term, but AM4C has a vison for the long-term emancipation of South African citizens from the underlying structural impediments to our economic growth and social development.
Throughout his illustrious political career, AM4C’s president, the Honourable Shaik Emam, as he is affectionately known to his parliamentary colleagues, has fought for the people of South Africa, so that the structures of our democracy work for them. One such instance, is his initiative to empower the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) members. The SAPS is a vital pillar of our democracy, and the police have been taken for granted for too long. His noble efforts resulted in police officers receiving an increase in Danger Allowance for the first time in thirty-one years.
As a believer in God, he knows that wisdom does not allow us to focus on only one aspect of an issue, but to seek holistic solutions. In line with this, the police can’t be the only ones for whom crime is a problem.
Social workers have been identified as a key support structure for the police, and with their ability to identify the vulnerabilities of families and communities, from addressing the blight of teenage pregnancy, to ensuring that liquor licenses are granted in a socially responsible manner, the Honourable Shaik Eman has worked with social workers to tackle the root causes of societal dysfunctionalities that contribute to crime.
Going beyond this, he lobbied for the recruitment of police be in line with national population increases, so that the police are not stretched beyond their capacity. In this, and in working for the increased capacitation of Community Policing Forums, he shows that in him and AM4C, the police have a true friend.
The Honourable Shaik Emam loves his people, and he recognises the need to heal the divisions between the people of South Africa. United in our diversity, we are stronger. This is why AM4C has made addressing the plight and exclusion of the Khoi and San peoples, a priority. It is a stain on our national character, that the First Nations of our land have been marginalised and ignored for these past thirty years of our democracy. Shamelessly, we adorn our coat of arms with their timeless wisdom and iconic imagery, but in practise, they are relegated to the status of second-class citizens. This changes now.
The issue of the landlessness of the majority of South Africans, including the Khoi and San, has been used as a political football by self-seeking politicians. Approximately R81billion has been spent on land reform since the 1990s. By now, the government of South Africa could well have bought farms for black emerging farmers on the open market, doing much to solve our problems of food-security. They could also have bought plots of land, to be demarcated between families, so that they could raise their children in dignity.
Instead, young agriculture graduates sit at home unemployed, and families are sent from pillar to post as they seek inadequate housing on increasingly scare pieces of state-owned land. Not only is this a waste of opportunities to purchase readily available privately owned land, as well as to boost the construction industry, but also an undermining of the state’s territorial integrity.
A leader’s job is to articulate the nature of the people’s problems and to initiate solutions to them. Looking at South Africa, one could become pessimistic, however, AM4C holds the long-term vision of unbundling South Africa from certain aspects of the global economic system.
This is the system that strangles the potential of the economic efforts of a county’s people from benefitting the people of that country. For example, SASOL produces petroleum products at relatively low price, but because we are embedded in a global economic system that dictates fuel prices to us, SASOL is unable to sell petroleum products to South Africans at prices that would stimulate economic production.
Likewise, earth minerals and other natural resources are commodities whose prices are regulated by institutions outside of South Africa, which do not have our interests at heart. This is clearly illustrated in arbitrary carbon emissions protocols that South Africa has been strong-armed into adopting, a direct factor in creating the scourge of loadshedding.
These global financial institutions and regimes are a relic of the colonial past. For too long, South African citizens have been fed a lie that by working harder within this current economic system, they would gain economic emancipation. AM4C recognises that it is impossible for the majority of people, not only in South Africa, but across the world, to be empowered by the very system that was created and implemented to oppress and exploit them.
Beyond our country’s shores, the Honourable Shaik Emam has a shining record of support for the Palestinian people. His was the first and only motion in the country and in the world, passed, resulting in South Africa recalling its Ambassador in Israel, and ensuring that Palestinians visit South Africa Visa Free.
As the father of our nation stated, “Our freedom is incomplete, without the freedom of the Palestinians.” What this means is that the international rules-based order must be reimagined, so that true justice may prevail on the Earth.
South Africans should be encouraged by the emergence of smaller parties like AM4C, because it is these smaller parties have, and continue to call for accountability in how state resources, the hard-earned taxes of our citizens, are used.
AM4C will work to implement measures such as thorough vetting of all appointees to the civil service; barring civil servants from applying for government tenders; a unified, transparent tender process; as well the implementation of an itemised system of accounting for all government expenditure at all levels of government.
The fact that the government is the largest employer in the South African economy, is an indicator of the unemployment crisis in our country. However, much can be done in the short to medium term to reimagine the way we think about economic productivity. As you’ve been hearing, the Allied Movement for Change has the solutions.
Be the change. Lead by example. This is what the Honourable Shaik Emam does every day. Using his own money, he purchased a franchise of the Empire Beauty School of Excellence, where he is empowering young men and women by providing them training as barbers and hairdressers.
On Wednesday, some of them graduated from their courses at the Empire Beauty School of Excellence.
This potentially lucrative trade, with a vast market, is now open to these young people, who may now become agents of economic growth and social development in their communities.
We wish them well in their coming endeavours, and that they also will be the change they want to see in the world.
Imagine how different our country would be, if we all did something within our capabilities, to lift our fellow citizens up.
For further enquiries email info@AM4C.org or call +27 31 207 4977 or +27 82 795 1524
(AM4C Press Office)