Former ANC member seeks asylum on Reunion

A former KwaZulu-Natal councillor who exposed alleged electoral fraud by the governing party has fled the country and has applied for political asylum on the French island of Reunion, says a City Press report. André Lötter, who served as a councillor for the Inkatha Freedom Party and later the African National Congress 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. His lawyer in Reunion, Mihidoiri Ali, reportedly told City Press he believed Lötter would 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, according to the report.