'He was my leader, mentor and friend'

Amichand Rajbansi's children have thrown their support behind their late dad's widow, the newly installed leader of the Minority Front, Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi.

The 48-year-old was named leader of the party on Thursday, following the politician's death late last month.

His family held a memorial service last Saturday to mark what would have been his 70th birthday.

Rajbansi's son, Vimal, said the family were proud of Shameen for being elected leader of the move-ment his late father had established.

"We have full confidence in her ability to lead this party from strength to strength. As a family, we would like to congratulate the members and structures of the MF for making it an easy decision for her to lead the party from now on."

He said the family would not be involved directly.

"We've always had an interest in the party and as a family we will be keeping a close eye on the MF's performance. It's my dad's legacy."

He was confident the party would grow its support base.

In last year's local government election, the MF received over 100000 votes in KwaZulu-Natal.

In her inaugural speech, Shameen thanked her "late leader, mentor, friend and husband". She said everything she had learnt during the past 13 years with the MF, she had learnt from Rajbansi.

"My fateful meeting with Mr Rajbansi in 1998 shaped me politically and my life with my leader and husband was one incredible adventure of increasing public involvement, first as Mrs Rajbansi, then more and more in my own right."

She said her leadership style would flow through her activities, victories and reactions and be a continuation of Rajbansi's political and social legacy.

"As the new leader of the MF, my first mandate is to continue the vision, mission and aims of why my leader established the MF. In his own words: 'To make South Africa world-class, the protection of minorities is paramount.'

"In terms of immediate to short-term goals, I will, like my leader, fearlessly voice the concerns of all the people at all levels of government because he founded this minority movement based on the fact that this was an international phenomenon based on various declarations and conventions. He stood firm that, the success of any democracy is dependent on the manner in which the minority communities are accommodated."

She said she would continue to work with vulnerable communities in bread-and-butter politics.

"I am a woman of action, endowed with rare energy from deep spirituality.

"I am not threatened by opposition parties. We have survived them. The only aim is to improve from where Mr Rajbansi left off. Mr Rajbansi had his own methods and tactics and he survived.

"With new leadership comes new blood and will come different ideas. Our main mandate is to prove to people that we will grow as a party and not get eaten up by any other party. There are creative ways to do that."

She said the MF would always survive as long as the country had a multiparty democracy.

"Our leader was known as Mr Delivery. His are big shoes to fill. I pray to God that I can live up to those expectations."

Shameen's mother, Betty Thakur, said she never thought her daughter would take up this job some day.

"I pray that God helps her in her political career. My wish is for her to do the best now that 'The Tiger' has died," said Thakur.