By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Photo Credit: Jay Caboz.
Social Justice Activist Zackie Achmat, internationally respected for his work with the Treatment Action Campaign, a prominent HIV/Aids advocacy movement held 2024 Rally in Cape Town.
The social movement activist is standing as an Independent Candidate in the upcoming elections.
The 62-year-old political novice is the only independent in the Western Cape vying for a seat in the National Assembly. This means he will only appear on the regional ballot in the Western Cape.
Achmat said, he will continue being a voice for the marginalised in society.
He said, “the rally was to acknowledge the support of various groupings of people who support his campaign. He said the fight for dignified living for the elderly, disabled, queer and other marginalised communities will continue.
“In our country 22% of people trust political parties, 58% of people don’t vote because of the promises that political parties make, political parties do not speak the truth to people, they, in fact, lie or make promises that are impossible to keep because they don’t understand society, economics and politics. So our job is to bring honesty and truth and hard work back into politics.”
If elected to Parliament, Achmat says he will aim to serve, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) — “the most important committee in our Parliament”, which functions as Parliament’s public purse watchdog.
He intends to focus on four key issues:
- Fixing commuter rail by addressing the issues at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa);
- Building a South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) that “either adequately coordinates or becomes an agency that genuinely reaches people”;
- Ensuring working-class communities get access to affordable renewable sources of energy; and
- Focusing on spatial justice and healthcare and mental health.
“With the exception of mental health and harm reduction I have engaged across all those things over time in different capacities,” he said, referring specifically to his directorship role at the civil society group #UniteBehind.
He became the first candidate to publicly announce his intention to run as an independent and has been gathering signatures in the Western Cape to gain ballot access in the province. When the time came for candidates and parties to submit their nomination requirements to the IEC, Achmat had garnered more than 15,000 signatures.
Achmat added while he is not aligned to any political party, he will work with MPs of integrity, who are committed to clean governance and tackling corruption.