Meet eThekwini’s Haniff Hoosen, anti-corruption activist determined to “do a Chris Pappas” next year

Former MP Haniff Hoosen has swapped Parliament for Durban’s frontlines - vowing to “do a Chris Pappas” by cleaning up eThekwini’s corruption, fixing crumbling infrastructure, and restoring trust in a city on its knees. Speaking to Alec Hogg, he outlines his plan to take back KZN’s biggest metro from decay and dysfunction.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..Watch here.Listen here.BizNews Reporter.For most politicians, moving from Parliament to a collapsing city might seem like career suicide. For Haniff Hoosen, it’s a mission. After 17 years in the National Assembly, the former Shadow Minister of Home Affairs has traded cushy offices in Cape Town for Durban’s crumbling streets, vowing to rebuild eThekwini from the ground up — and “do a Chris Pappas” by turning dysfunction into a model of clean governance.“I got tired of watching other people destroy our future,” he tells Alec Hogg in this interview. “Durban is the most beautiful city in South Africa. It has so much potential, but I’ve watched it fall apart.”Hoosen, the DA’s mayoral candidate for eThekwini in next year’s local elections, says he reached a breaking point during his daily beachfront walks. The water smells of sewage, potholes scar the roads, and the city’s once iconic Golden Mile is now deserted. “You can’t just look away and say it’s someone else’s problem,” he says. “If you love this city, you have to fight for it.”He’s banking on the same formula that transformed uMngeni Municipality under Chris Pappas — transparency, accountability, and putting money where it’s meant to go. “When the DA took over uMngeni five years ago, it was bankrupt and broken. Today it’s the best-run municipality in KwaZulu-Natal,” Hoosen says. “All we’re asking Durban’s residents is to give us the same five years. We’ll fix the city by simply not stealing the money.”That, he adds, is no small task. “About 60 percent of the water eThekwini buys goes straight into the ground — that’s R3 billion a year wasted. The Auditor General found irregular expenditure has gone from R700 million to R4 billion in just four years. People are eating. They’re not even pretending anymore.”For Hoosen, corruption isn’t a statistic — it’s personal. In 2016, he ran against then mayor Zandile Gumede, now facing trial for a R320 million tender fraud case. “If voters had given us that chance ten years ago, Durban wouldn’t be in this mess,” he says. “Our beaches wouldn’t be full of sewage, our pipes wouldn’t be bursting, and people wouldn’t be leaving the city in droves.”The DA believes this election could finally break the ANC’s grip on eThekwini. In the 2021 local elections, the ruling party fell below 50 percent for the first time. In by-elections since, the decline has continued — and Hoosen is seeing growing support from unlikely corners. “We’ve met MK supporters, even EFF members, who tell us they’ll vote DA locally because they see what we’re doing elsewhere,” he says. “They’re tired of politics. They want a functioning city.”He insists his campaign isn’t about party colours but performance. “Local government isn’t about ideology. It’s about fixing water pipes, collecting rubbish, and keeping the lights on,” he says. “I tell people: we’re all in the same boat. If one side leaks, we all sink.”Still, Hoosen knows the fight won’t be clean. “The ANC here has given up on building a future — they’re focused on eating as much as they can before they’re out,” he warns. “We’re dealing with professional crooks. The next year is going to see massive looting. That’s why our councillors are monitoring every tender and every contract. We want to close the taps before the taps close on us.”The threat isn’t just financial — it’s physical. KZN has one of the country’s highest rates of political assassinations. “Of course I’m aware of the risks,” Hoosen says calmly. “If you’ve stolen the people’s money, you’re going to jail. I can’t look away while people loot the poor. That’s the price of leadership.”His critics have pointed to his early political ties — he began his career in the National Party — but Hoosen is unapologetic. “In 1994 there were nearly 20 parties on the ballot. People from every background helped build this democracy. I’m proud of that history,” he says. “We can’t fix yesterday, but we can build a better tomorrow.”He speaks often about creating opportunity so that Durban’s children don’t have to leave the city to find work. “I had to send my own child overseas to study,” he says. “Thousands of families have done the same. Why can’t we create those opportunities here? We’ve got the best weather, a world-class coastline — we just need good leadership.”That leadership, he believes, must be rooted in business sense, not political slogans. “We have to run the city like a company,” he says. “Value for money, accountability, no waste. For too long, our government’s been obsessed with race and ideology. Look where that’s brought us.”Hoosen’s plan includes a city-wide voter education campaign. “We can’t fix Durban unless people understand their power,” he says. “Many don’t even know how bad things are. Some communities go weeks without water — Tongaati went over a year and a half. We’ll be going into townships to show people the numbers, to teach them how their votes can change their lives.”He’s targeting young and disillusioned voters, especially within Durban’s large Indian community, where apathy runs high. “Only half are registered to vote, and half of those don’t show up. That’s hundreds of thousands of potential votes sitting at home,” he says. “We’re telling them — if you don’t vote, you’re voting for collapse.”Despite the odds, Hoosen is optimistic. “South Africans are resilient and smart,” he says. “They know what’s broken — now they just need to believe they can fix it.”He pauses for a moment, then adds, “When Chris Pappas won uMngeni, people said it couldn’t be done. Today, that town’s thriving. Next year, we’ll do the same here.”

Meet eThekwini’s Haniff Hoosen, anti-corruption activist determined to “do a Chris Pappas” next year

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