Visvin Reddy

Reddy was born on 7 December 1970{{cite magazine |date=20 April 2004 |title=General Notice: Notice 717 of 2004 - Electoral Commission – List of Names of Representatives in the National Assembly and the Nine Provincial Legislatures in Respect of the Elections Held on 14 April 2004 |url=https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/262770.pdf |magazine=Government Gazette of South Africa |location=Pretoria, South Africa |publisher=Government of South Africa |volume=466 |issue=2677 |pages=4–95 |access-date=26 March 2021}} in Shallcross, a suburb of Durban in the former Natal Province.{{Cite news |date=19 September 2018 |title=Rapid fire with Visvin Reddy |work=The Post |url=https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/post-south-africa/20180919/281689730722321 |access-date=16 June 2023 |via=PressReader}} His father was a policeman and his mother was a housewife. Classified as Indian under apartheid, he was chairperson of the student representative council at his high school and later at Durban's Springfield College of Education, where he qualified as a teacher with a specialisation in computer science teaching. According to Reddy, he became known as the "Boycott King" for organising student boycotts at the college.{{Cite news |date=22 September 2018 |title=At home with Visvin Reddy |work=The Post |url=https://www.iol.co.za/thepost/news/at-home-with-visvin-reddy-17174566 |access-date=16 June 2023}} He began teaching high school students in 1993, first in Johannesburg and then in Dannhauser.

While teaching full-time, Reddy became involved in politics through Amichand Rajbansi's Minority Front (MF), of which he was a founding member in 1993. After the end of apartheid in 1994, Reddy represented the MF as a local councillor, first in the Durban Unicity and then in the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality. In the December 2000 local elections, in which eThekwini was established, Reddy narrowly won a seat as ward councillor for the township of Chatsworth, Durban: he received 1,552 votes (35.2%) against the 1,483 votes (33.68%) received by the Democratic Alliance (DA).{{Cite web |date=2004-04-28 |title=DA machine takes on Rajbansi in Chatsworth |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2004-04-28-da-machine-takes-on-rajbansi-in-chatsworth/ |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} He subsequently quit teaching to pursue politics full-time. He was viewed as the "right-hand man" of MF leader Rajbansi.{{Cite web |date=2001-03-02 |title=Durban deputy mayor in fraud probe |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2001-03-02-durban-deputy-mayor-in-fraud-probe/ |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}{{Cite web |date=23 February 2001 |title=Durban council bribery scandal |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/durban-council-bribery-scandal-20010223 |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}

By 2001, Reddy was the leader of the MF's caucus in the municipal council, a member of the council's executive committee, and the chairperson of its Tenders and Contracts Committee. In February of that year, managers of two hotels in KwaZulu-Natal accused Reddy of having extorted or solicited bribes from them; he had apparently demanded free weekend stays in exchange for a commitment to send government business to the hotels.{{Cite news |date=22 February 2001 |title=Council probes councillor for bribery |work=IOL |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/council-probes-councillor-for-bribery-59176 |access-date=16 June 2023}} Reddy strongly denied the allegation. He told the Independent that he had not had any contact with one of the hotels and that he had accepted a free stay at the other hotel after being assured that it was common practice; he told the Witness that the hotels had offered him accommodation but that he had turned them down. Although the New National Party and Democratic Party called for Reddy to be suspended, the council allowed him to remain in office pending an investigation, and he was firmly defended by Rajbansi.{{Cite news |date=26 February 2001 |title=Rajbansi defends Reddy over 'bribes' |work=IOL |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/rajbansi-defends-reddy-over-bribes-55065 |access-date=16 June 2023}}

In late December 2003, when it transpired that Reddy had applied for full-time administrative jobs in the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, Reddy assured the press that he intended to continue to represent the MF. Highlighting his friendship with Rajbansi and his involvement in the party's campaign ahead of the upcoming 2004 general election, he said that he would "be focusing all my energies on ensuring a MF victory".{{Cite news |date=23 December 2003 |title=Visvin Reddy denies he's quitting the MF |work=IOL |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/visvin-reddy-denies-hes-quitting-the-mf-119770 |access-date=16 June 2023}} However, on 3 February 2004, Reddy announced at a press conference that he was resigning from the council and from the MF in order to join the DA, a larger opposition party.{{Cite web |date=3 February 2004 |title=Reddy joins DA |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/reddy-joins-da-20040203 |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=News24 |language=en-US}} His resignation triggered a highly competitive by-election in Chatsworth.

Reddy stood for the DA as a candidate for election to the national Parliament in the April 2004 general election, and he was elected to one of the party's eight seats in the KwaZulu-Natal caucus of the National Assembly. However, by the time of the election result, Reddy had already resigned from the DA, and he was not sworn in to his seat.{{Cite web |date=2009-01-15 |title=National Assembly Members |url=http://www.pmg.org.za/parlinfo/nalist#_ftnref87 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090514071402/http://www.pmg.org.za/parlinfo/nalist#_ftnref87 |archive-date=14 May 2009 |access-date=2023-04-08 |website=Parliamentary Monitoring Group}}

Reddy had left the DA in order to join the African National Congress (ANC), the national governing party. He later said that the ANC had approached him and that he had agreed because "I was not comfortable in the DA, so I didn't waste time". In the aftermath of the 2004 general election, the ANC's Mike Sutcliffe, municipal manager of eThekwini, hired Reddy as a contract consultant in his office.{{Cite web |date=2004-08-18 |title=The god of small minds |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2004-08-19-the-god-of-small-minds/ |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} The DA and Inkatha Freedom Party objected to his appointment, with the DA alleging that the job offer was the ANC's way of paying its "political debts" to Reddy.{{Cite news |date=27 April 2004 |title=Big pay for Visvin Reddy |work=IOL |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/big-pay-for-visvin-reddy-211497 |access-date=16 June 2023}}

After leaving Sutcliffe's office, Reddy went on to work in administrative positions in the provincial Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, while rising in influence in the ANC. According to the Mail & Guardian, his rise created resentment among some ANC members, who believed that he was elevated because he could swell the membership numbers of the party in eThekwini, thus according the region more weight at the ANC's highly contested 52nd National Conference.{{Cite web |date=2008-10-19 |title=Indians could split with Terror |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2008-10-19-indians-could-split-with-terror/ |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} He also returned to local government as an eThekwini councillor for the ANC, until the 2011 local elections, when he was excluded from the party's final list of candidates.{{Cite news |date=19 April 2011 |title=‘Jesus would vote for ANC’ |work=IOL |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/jesus-would-vote-for-anc-1058926 |access-date=16 June 2023}} He nonetheless campaigned for the ANC in 2011, controversially telling a party rally that, "If Jesus were here on election day he would vote ANC."

After vacating the council again in 2011, Reddy left frontline politics to pursue his business career. He owned several restaurants, sports bars, and logistics companies. He also remained active in the ANC and chaired the party's Chatsworth branch.{{Cite web |date=3 May 2014 |title=ANC suspends Visvin Reddy |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/anc-suspends-visvin-reddy-20140503 |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}

In May 2014, Reddy invited controversy by posting in a Facebook comment that Indian critics of the ANC government should "go to India".{{Cite web |date=2 May 2014 |title=‘Go to India’ advice offends Indians |url=https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/politics/2014-05-02-go-to-india-advice-offends-indians/ |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=Business Day |language=en-ZA}} In his comment, he wrote:

To you anti-ANC commentators... wait until May 8. The ANC will still rule this country. You whiners should leave. Go to India and you will see what a good life we have here. Continue with your garbage and marginalise yourself further. Don’t blame the ANC, blame yourself. You have not yet embraced democracy. Only a foolish Indian in South Africa will not engage the majority constructively...

While pursuing his business career, Reddy became founder and convenor of a lobby group called People Against Petrol and Paraffin Price Increases (Pappi), which protested increases in the price of petrol in South Africa.{{Cite web |date=26 July 2018 |title=National petrol shutdown postponed – LNN |url=https://benonicitytimes.co.za/lnn/453720/national-petrol-shutdown-postponed/ |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=Benoni City Times |language=en-US}} Reddy said that the group had undertaken to meet with the Russian Embassy about the sale of crude oil to South Africa,{{Cite web |last=Nxumalo |first=Sakhiseni |date=2022-06-04 |title=SA group takes fuel talks to Russian embassy |url=https://www.citizen.co.za/witness/news/kzn/sa-group-takes-fuel-talks-to-russian-embassy-20220604/ |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=Witness |language=en}} and he later claimed that the group had 300,000 followers. It was viewed as highly sympathetic to former President Jacob Zuma of the ANC.{{Cite web |date=2018-12-14 |title=Battling Jozi’s mean streets |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2018-12-14-00-battling-jozis-mean-streets/ |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}

During this period, on 1 May 2019, Minister Gugile Nkwinti appointed Reddy to a four-year term as a member of the board of directors at Umgeni Water, a state-owned entity.{{Cite news |date=3 May 2019 |title=Nkwinti appoints new board at Umgeni Water |work=Engineering News |url=https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/nkwinti-appoints-new-board-at-umgeni-water-2019-05-03/ |access-date=16 June 2023}}

In 2020, Reddy was elected as president of African Democratic Change (Adec), a minor political party founded by Makhosi Khoza.{{Cite web |date=7 October 2020 |title=Huge task ahead for Visvin Reddy |url=https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/post-south-africa/20201007/281767041683417 |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=The Post |via=PressReader}} Over the next year, he occasionally received media attention for minor controversies. He was an outspoken advocate for the use of Ivermectin in treating COVID-19, leading protests on the issue and taking a solution of the medicine during a Facebook livestream.{{Cite news |date=16 January 2021 |title=Ivermectin: 'No government or politician can infringe on my right’ |work=IOL |url=https://www.iol.co.za/thepost/news/ivermectin-no-government-or-politician-can-infringe-on-my-right-bae4746d-4921-4b46-ae0a-adcc1cb753c6 |access-date=16 June 2023}} Later the same year, the ANC accused him and his party of "despicable provocation and dangerous race-baiting" after an Adec protest called for the release of the "Phoenix heroes", their name for the individuals who faced criminal charges for their involvement in vigilante violence in Phoenix during civil unrest in July.{{Cite web |date=1 October 2021 |title=Party’s campaign call to free ‘Phoenix heroes’ was dangerous ‘race-baiting’, says ANC |url=https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2021-10-01-partys-campaign-call-to-free-phoenix-heroes-was-dangerous-race-baiting-says-anc/ |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=Sowetan |language=en-ZA}}

Under Adec's banner, he stood as a candidate in the 2021 local elections and returned to the eThekwini council as a proportional-representation councillor in November 2021. Under his leadership, Adec and a handful of other small parties joined a coalition with the ANC which allowed the ANC to form a government in the municipality despite its poor electoral showing. However, the coalition fell apart in mid-2022 and Reddy tabled a motion of no confidence in the ANC-led executive committee.{{Cite web |date=2022-08-11 |title=No confidence vote looms as eThekwini coalition crumbles |url=https://mg.co.za/politics/2022-08-11-no-confidence-vote-looms-as-ethekwini-coalition-crumbles/ |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}

On 3 January 2024, Reddy announced after he had a long meeting with former South African president Jacob Zuma that his party, the Adec, would form a coalition with Zuma's UMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party after the 2024 general elections.{{Cite news |last=Phungula |first=Willem |date=3 January 2024 |title=Visvin Reddy’s ADeC to form coalition with MK party after elections |url=https://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/visvin-reddys-adec-to-form-coalition-with-mk-party-after-elections-f5362e00-c078-4904-964d-9cfbdb8cdb51 |access-date=10 March 2024 |work=Independent Online}} Reddy was later appointed the provincial leader of the MK party in KwaZulu-Natal. On 5 March 2024, Reddy threatened violence if the MK party was not allowed to contest the 2024 general elections.{{Cite news |last=Phungula |first=Willem |date=6 March 2024 |title=‘There will be no elections without MK’ |url=https://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/there-will-be-no-elections-without-mk-a0b87eff-2b84-47dc-93a8-cd87c5cd720d |access-date=10 March 2024 |work=IOL}}

On 9 March 2024, it was revealed that Reddy occupies the 9th position on the MK Party's parliamentary candidate list for the 2024 general elections.{{Cite web |date=2024-03-09 |title=Jacob Zuma heads MK party list |url=https://mg.co.za/politics/2024-03-09-jacob-zuma-heads-mk-party-list/ |access-date=2024-03-10 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}

In 1993, Reddy married Sharmaine Reddy (née Naidoo) in Chatsworth. She was a teacher and later took early retirement. They live together in Malvern and have three adult children, a daughter and twin sons. Their first-born child, a son named Nivashan, died in a road accident in October 1996 when he was 18 months old; the family's car was caught in a crosswind and trapped under a truck on Van Reenen's Pass near Ladysmith. Reddy and his wife were seriously injured and their son died at the scene.

In February 2006, Reddy's younger brother, Selvan Reddy, was shot dead at their parents' house in Shallcross; Selvan was a member of the metro police and Reddy believed that he was assassinated due to his work.{{Cite news |date=24 February 2006 |title=ANC councillor's cop brother gunned down |work=IOL |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/anc-councillors-cop-brother-gunned-down-267463 |access-date=16 June 2023}}

In August 2016, while sitting in his Mercedes-Benz in traffic in Pinetown,{{Cite news |date=10 August 2016 |title=S Africans live in cages, says Reddy after robbery |work=IOL |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/s-africans-live-in-cages-says-reddy-after-robbery-2055208 |access-date=16 June 2023}} Reddy was stabbed twice in the arm in a mugging.{{Cite web |date=8 August 2016 |title=ANC backer Visvin Reddy stabbed in Pinetown mugging |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/anc-backer-visvin-reddy-stabbed-in-pinetown-mugging-20160808 |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |date=9 August 2016 |title=Visvin Reddy stabbed, robbed at robots |work=The Mercury |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/visvin-reddy-stabbed-robbed-at-robots-2054963 |access-date=16 June 2023}} He was hospitalised in January 2023 with illness caused by enteropathogenic E. coli.{{Cite news |date=9 January 2023 |title=eThekwini Municipality assures residents its tap water is safe to drink, says independent tests being conducted |work=The Mercury |url=https://www.iol.co.za/mercury/news/ethekwini-municipality-assures-residents-its-tap-water-is-safe-to-drink-says-independent-tests-being-conducted-6932f21d-d426-4833-8b33-63e53b741086 |access-date=16 June 2023}}

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Category:Living people

Category:1970 births

Category:Politicians from Durban

Category:South African politicians of Indian descent

Category:20th-century South African politicians

Category:African National Congress politicians

Category:Democratic Alliance (South Africa) politicians

Category:Minority Front politicians

Category:UMkhonto we Sizwe politicians

Category:Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 2004–2009

Category:Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 2024–2029