DURBAN - It was all calm in Phoenix, north of Durban, on Monday as local government elections kicked off.
The roads were void of bumper to bumper traffic and minibus taxis touting for passengers at every corner.
In the Sunford suburb, a group of men played volleyball.
At the Brailsford Primary School, Aumsen “Omie” Singh, a former MP, cast his vote.
Singh said Phoenix had been his constituency for over 20 years.
He was a transitional metropolitan counsellor from 1996 to 1999.
Singh was then a provincial member of parliament, and thereafter, served as a National member of parliament.
“I served in three tiers of government for over 25 years. I have been approached by several parties to contest the 2021 local government elections, but after my retirement in 2019, I decided not to contest elections anymore. I am pursuing some of my business interests which I was unable to pursue while I was a member of Parliament.”
Sham Maharaj, the founder of the Phoenix Working Committee (PWC) in 1977 and recently part of the Phoenix Ubuntu Committee, cast his vote at Greenbury Community Hall on Monday.
Maharaj played a pivotal role in the formation of Phoenix suburb and civil rights bodies under the former apartheid regime in South Africa.
He said his vote and that of others was important in charting a new course for KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa.
Maharaj still has his election candidate board that he once had fixed to light poles in Phoenix in 1999.
It was autographed by former president Nelson Mandela who visited Phoenix then.
Maharaj also played an important part in brokering peace between residents of Inanda and Phoenix after the recent July unrest.
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