The relationship between the ANC and the Indian community was forged in the trenches of the struggle, not as an act of convenience but as an act of a single people working together. Throughout the history of a struggle for freedom, the role of South Africans of the Indian origin has been central.
It was thus with heavy hearts that members of the Indian community, along with the Mayor of Ethekwini, Mxolisi Kaunda, admitted their disappointment that R4,4 million earmarked for the 1860 Indentured Monument project had not been ... the money was returned to the province.
The year 2020 would mark 16 years since the arrival of Indian people in Durban. The Ethekwini was unable to use the funds for the erection of the statue celebrating this milestone but could have used the funds to build a soup kitchen or second-hand clothing distribution in the name of indenture labourers.
Given the funds in March 2015, the Ethekwini City returned the money to the city with difficulties to implement the project. The feeling among the Indian community now is that the role of the province's history has not been recognised but undermined. [Time expired.]