Al Jama-ah

Al Jama-ah (Arabic: الجماعة, lit. 'the Congregation') is a South African political party. It was formed in 2007 by present leader Ganief Hendricks and contested the 2009, 2014 and 2019 national elections.[4]

Al Jama-ah
الجماعة
LeaderGanief Hendricks
Founded23 April 2007
HeadquartersHoward Centre,
Pinelands, Cape Town
Ideology
Political position
Colours  Green   Black   Red
National Assembly seats
1 / 400
National Council of Provinces
0 / 90
Cape Town City Council
3 / 231
Party flag
Website
www.aljama.co.za

The party aims to support Muslim interests and uphold Shari'a law. The flag of Al Jama-ah depicts a white gim (ج, the first letter in its Arabic name), upon a field consisting of the other Islamic colours. In 2023, party member Thapelo Amad became Mayor of Johannesburg.[5]

History

Until 2019, the party had no elected representatives nationally or provincially although it came close in both the 2009 and 2014 elections, and won nine seats at the local level in the 2016 municipal elections.

It made a breakthrough in 2019, winning its first national representative (becoming the first Islam-affiliated party to do so), as well as one seat in the Western Cape legislature.

In October 2019, its member of parliament for the Western Cape, Izgak De Jager, was replaced by Galil Brinkhuis after De Jager was accused of not complying with an agreement to pay 50% of his gross salary to the party. De Jager in turn stated that the agreement was to pay 50% of the net, not gross salary, and accused the party of failing disclose its debt to its members.[6]

In 2023, Al Jama-ah's Thapelo Amad was chosen as Mayor of Johannesburg with the support of the African National Congress.[5]

Election results

National Assembly
Election Total votes Share of vote Seats +/– Government
2009 25,947 0.15
0 / 400
 – extraparliamentary
2014 25,976 0.14
0 / 400
 – extraparliamentary
2019 31,468 0.18
1 / 400
 Increase1 in opposition

Provincial elections
Election[7][8] Eastern Cape Free State Gauteng Kwazulu-Natal Limpopo Mpumalanga North-West Northern Cape Western Cape
 %Seats  %Seats  %Seats  %Seats  %Seats  %Seats  %Seats  %Seats  %Seats
2014 –– –– –– –– –– –– –– –– 0.62%0/42
2019 0.15%0/63 –– 0.18%0/73 0.28%0/80 –– –– –– –– 0.86%1/42

Municipal elections

In a by-election in November 2020, Al-Jama-ah won a ward in the City of Johannesburg from the Democratic Alliance.[9]

Election Votes  % +/–
2011[10] 13,227 0.04% -
2016[11] 36,891 0.10% +0.06
2021[12] 61,189 0.20% +0.10

See also

References
  1. Ebrahim, Shaazia. "Al Jama-ah Party: We'll Tackle Inequality With Islam And Ubuntu". thedailyvox. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
  2. Lagardien, Ismail. "Al Jama-ah: The small Islamic political party with a narrow vision and big ambitions". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
  3. De Barros, Luiz. "New Johannesburg mayor is from openly queerphobic party". Mamba. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
  4. "Final List of Parties to contest the 2009 Elections". Polity.org.za. 11 March 2009. Retrieved 13 April 2009.
  5. Ramushwana, Alpha. "Al Jama-ah's Thapelo Amad is Johannesburg's new mayor". ewn.co.za. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
  6. newsroom (6 December 2019). "Al Jama-ah rocked by internal politics - Voice of the Cape". Retrieved 11 October 2021.
  7. "Election Resources on the Internet: Republic of South Africa General Election Results Lookup".
  8. "Results Dashboard". www.elections.org.za. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  9. Khumalo, Juniour. "The DA was the biggest loser in this week's by-elections". Citypress. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  10. "Detailed results" (PDF). elections.org.za. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  11. "Results Summary - All Ballots" (PDF). elections.org.za. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  12. "IEC Results Dashboard". results.elections.org.za. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
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