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Ex-ANC man fears for his life, seeks asylum in Reunion

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André Lötter, his wife and young daughter have applied for asylum on the French island of Reunion.
PHOTO: Matthew
Middleton
André Lötter, his wife and young daughter have applied for asylum on the French island of Reunion. PHOTO: Matthew Middleton

Durban - A former KwaZulu-Natal ANC councillor who exposed electoral fraud by the governing party has fled the country and has applied for political asylum on the French island of Reunion.

André Lötter, who served as a councillor for the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and later the ANC in Vryheid in northern KwaZulu-Natal before standing as an independent candidate, applied for political asylum in June last year and has been granted interim residence on the Indian Ocean island while his application is heard.

Lötter claims that he and his Ugandan wife, Robinah, were forced to flee Vryheid and live at “fake addresses” after he took the ANC to court over its dirty – and illegal – election tactics.

He says they now fear that they will lose their lives if they return to South Africa.

Lötter, who left the IFP to join the ANC in 2008, successfully petitioned the Constitutional Court to have by-elections in the farming town halted because of tampering with the voters’ roll and attempts to bus in voters from other wards.

His lawyer in Reunion, Mihidoiri Ali, told City Press that Lötter had asked for political asylum the “right way” by doing so immediately after he landed on the island last year.

“He asked directly for asylum at the airport customs. He is now legally on French ground,” Ali said.

“I am convinced that André Lötter will get political asylum. Not only does his case fit the Geneva Conventions, it fits the French Constitution that gives asylum to every person persecuted because of their actions to protect freedom,” Ali said.

Applications to the French office for refugees usually take more than a year to process as the asylum seeker’s claims of persecution are investigated.

According to Ali, Lötter’s is the first South African asylum application since 2009 and the first in Reunion, where most asylum seekers come from the Comores.

André Lötter chose Reunion because he could speak French and his wife could go to the island without a visa

Lötter, who used to live on the farm Wiernansrust outside Vryheid, told Reunion newspaper Le Quotidien that he left the ANC after discovering that “the ANC, just like the IFP, cheated during a by-election in that they registered voters from outside the ward”.

“I finally decided to leave the ANC, and started to fight for free and fair elections. I went to court to postpone an election, but then started to receive threats,” he told the publication.

“My car was burnt. Then my farm was taken from me. For months, I lived with my wife and my one-year-old daughter at fake addresses, but the administration found us. We really feared for our lives. At the end of May, we took the hard decision to leave the country.”

Lötter declined to comment on the details of his asylum application, saying he was finalising an extensive submission to the French authorities.

“For now, we can stay here,” he said. “The administration in Reunion gives us a place to stay and can provide for our subsistence. The island is very pretty. But also, it is nice to see a place where everyone finds it ‘normal’ to meet a white man and his black wife.”

Lötter said he had chosen Reunion because he could speak French – he lived in France for 11 years as a youngster – and his wife could go to the island without a visa.

He said that after two days in the airport’s “waiting zone”, the family had been allowed on to French territory, and were given a place to stay and a subsistence allowance.

Lötter says he plans to continue his “struggle for free and fair elections from here”, and will begin fundraising to fight cases from abroad.

“The world needs to understand that Nelson Mandela’s ANC is gone with him. Instead of fighting for the people, the poor, the voters, the party struggles to maintain its leadership,” Lötter said.

He said he believed a return to South Africa would be possible. “The ANC must fall like apartheid has fallen,” he said.

A spokesperson for the French high commission in Pretoria declined to comment and referred City Press to the Reunion authorities.

Nelson Kgwete, spokesperson for the department of international relations and cooperation, said they were not aware of Lötter’s asylum application.

Kgwete said that foreign countries were not obliged to inform South Africa of such applications.

“Government learns about these in many instances through the media,” Kgwete said.

“South Africa is a democratic country and every citizen has a right to choose where he or she wants to live. As regards Mr Lötter’s application, it is up to the Reunion authorities whether to accept or reject the application. The South African government is not in a position to influence the decision of another state in this instance,” Kgwete said.

ANC KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson Sicelo Khuzwayo referred City Press to provincial secretary Sihle Zikalala for comment.

At the time of going to press, Zikalala had not responded to requests for comment.

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