A new political party, the South Africa Home Residents Association (Sahra), formed by disgruntled members of the Better Resident Association, formerly known as the Bushbuckridge Resident Association (BRA), is now on the list of 648 registered political parties in the country.
The party’s president, Nuel Simon Machate, said former members of BRA decided to form and register Sahra after being betrayed by its leaders. “We were disappointed, because we were willing from the onset to change the lives of the people of Bushbuckridge for the better. We will still improve the lives of the people for the better with Sahra,” he said. “We believe God will guide us to greener pastures.”
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Machate’s party was registered with the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa in January and approved in March. “Our application to contest in both the national and municipal elections was successful, and that was a dream come true for us,” he said. “We had already stated with the the process of nominating ward councillors in 10 wards through door-to-door campaigns conducted under strict adherence to Covid-19 regulations. The party seems to dominate in Ward 18 and 32 with more than 260 members in each ward,” he said.
Talking about the party manifesto, Machate said, “Sahra was determined to work hand in hand with traditional councils to bring much-needed services to the people. We have since realised that traditional councils had been sidelined for a long time.
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“We are determined to deal away with corruption, and monitor tenders with councillors to avoid corrupt activities and misuse of funds. We will also manager the influx of undocumented people coming into the the country.
“We believe that working with traditional leaders will help identifying those people. We strongly believe that laws and restrictions should protect our country against porous borders. We must protect our South Africa. People must be registered to easily monitor criminal activities in the country. We must promote regulations at all times,” Machate said.
