Omar Latiff: Accountant, civic activist and mayor who made his city a winner
OMAR Latiff, who has died in Durban at the age of 61, was the first black academic at the Pietermaritzburg campus of the then Natal University, and the city’s first black mayor.
He attracted the envy of every other mayor when he bestowed the city’s highest honour on two of the world’s most famous and revered leaders on the same day.
He bestowed the Freedom of the City on Nelson Mandela on the morning of April 25 1997 and arranged for Mandela to bestow the same award on Mahatma Gandhi that afternoon. It was received on Gandhi’s behalf by his grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the then Indian high commissioner, on the platform of the Pietermaritzburg railway station where the young Indian barrister was thrown off a train on June 7 1893.
Latiff’s carefully constructed plan was to have both men arrive together on a steam train where they would be greeted on the platform by the city councillors in full regalia. It was almost derailed at the last moment when national security vetoed it, but with practised expertise Latiff negotiated a solution and it went ahead, attracting an unprecedented turnout for a civic event.
Latiff became mayor in early 1996 after the region had come through one of the bloodiest periods of political violence in its history. Pietermaritzburg was at the epicentre of that violence.
As co-chairman of the Greater Pietermaritzburg Local Government Negotiating Forum, Latiff was at the forefront of efforts to negotiate an alliance between the warring ANC and IFP factions.
His ability to chair meetings in a calm, intelligent, evenhanded way won broad appeal and made him an obvious choice to take over from the transitional mayor, Rob Haswell.
A chartered accountant and professor of taxation, he was probably the most financially literate mayor Pietermaritzburg ever had, and it soon showed.
He introduced zero-based budgeting in sharp contrast to the usual practice of adding a rates and tariffs increase annually to the previous year’s budget to cover expenditure without ever interrogating that expenditure.
Every rand spent had to be justified anew every year, and this saved millions.
He emphasised the necessity of growing the city’s rates base in real terms, and for the first time the municipality began to facilitate development rather than frustrate it.
He insisted that separate business bodies come together, thus laying the groundwork for what is today the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business.
He embarked on a partnership with the city of Hampton, Virginia, in the US, which led to the city’s first investment conference, in 2000, and introduced an incentives package for new and expanding businesses.
This paved the way for the Liberty Midlands Mall, Motortown, the Victoria Country Club Estate, and many other significant investments. Pietermaritzburg was one of the first South African cities to establish an economic development department and interdepartmental committee to fast-track development ideas and applications, thus anticipating the National Development Plan’s call in 2011 for municipalities to put economic development at the heart of what they do.
When the Liberty Property Group described Msunduzi as “the most proactive municipality” it had ever dealt with, it was testimony to Latiff’s business insight and influence.
He was mayor for only two years, resigning in 1998 after a heart attack. He said he had not enjoyed the experience.
“It is a very demanding job, 14 hours a day, seven days a week, and has been very stressful at times.”
Latiff was born in Durban on September 21 1953. He went to school in Newcastle, graduated with a BCom degree from the then University of Durban Westville in 1976, completed a bachelor of accounting sciences degree through Unisa and qualified as a chartered accountant in 1981.
He started his own accounting practice, which later merged with PwC.
He became a lecturer at the school of accounting at the Pietermaritzburg campus of Natal University in 1982, its first black academic.
He retired as a professor of taxation in 2009 and joined PwC as a director and partner.
He became a political activist in the mid-’80s, distinguishing himself in the civic movement.
He played a significant technical role in the major campaign against discriminatory rates paid by homeowners in what were then Indian and coloured group areas.
He became an executive member of the regional ANC in 1990 and used his contacts to build support for the ANC within the Indian business community.
After resigning as mayor he served on the boards of several state-owned enterprises including the South African National Space Agency, astronomy and astrophysics being among his many interests.
He was chairman of the Umgeni Water board and at the time of his death chairman of the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
Latiff, who died of a heart attack, is survived by his wife, Roshen, whom he married in 1978. They had four children. — Chris Barron
It is a very demanding job, 14 hours a day, seven days a week