Bay deputy mayor unveiled as Build One SA national chair
Nelson Mandela Bay deputy mayor and Abantu Integrity Movement (AIM) founder Mkhuseli Jack was unveiled as Build One SA’s (Bosa) national chair during the party’s official launch in Johannesburg at the weekend.
Jack, who has been deputy mayor for less than a week, said joining Mmusi Maimane’s movement did not mean he was abandoning AIM but rather collaborating with a formation with similar intentions.
“We have been working and talking together with Maimane since early last year, and we ultimately decided that he was the person we will work and do business with,” Jack said.
Bosa is an umbrella body made up of community leaders and formations with the same vision.
It has also attracted businessmen like Twizza owner Ken Clark, who has since formed his own political party in Komani, The Independents.
Clark said while his party did not attend the weekend event, it would be part of an organisation looking to remove the ANC from power.
“I’m currently in Europe so I didn’t attend the event but we are definitely part of the unification of all the opposition against the ANC under the Bosa banner.”
Jack said of all the political parties in SA, Bosa was the only one that resonated with AIM as they shared the same value systems.
“There’s a plethora of reasons that informed our decision to join Bosa, the prepared dossier for the party talks to what AIM stands for, which are the basic principles of adhering to healthy social values, integrity, honesty and demonstration of unflinching sense of patriotism.”
Asked what this move meant for AIM in the metro, Jack said the party would continue contesting elections in the city.
“AIM will remain and will contest the elections in Nelson Mandela Bay, nothing changes in that regard.
“It’s just that AIM endeavours to associate and collaborate with people who are similar minded in the country as we try to Build One SA.”
He said AIM party members would not be affected and none had objected to the party’s decision to collaborate with Bosa.
Jack said Maimane also fitted perfectly in the prospects of having a young qualified leader to run SA.
“Above all else, Maimane is a young leader, this whole thing of wanting youth leadership has to come with qualification, humility, respect and an utterly principled person.
“Therefore, we identified Maimane as the young person we will propel forward,” he said.
“If you can see the team that has been assembled across the length and breadth of the country, they’ve got the formula to bring the kind of youth that we can look to and not this whole thing of creating youth leaders who from the word go, are made demagogues and people with no respect for the values of humanity, the country and the constitution.”
Bosa held a three-day workshop for all its leaders from the various formations to discuss the party’s fundamental pillars of building one SA and ways to push the party toward the 2024 elections.
Jack as the party’s national chair is responsible for setting the party up nationally and adhering strictly to the party principles in preparing them for the national elections.