Sizwe Ummah Nation (SUN) Party parliamentary candidate Rasheed Ebrahim Gutta is urging politicians to stop party politics and concentrate on putting the country first.

Gutta told Polity that one of the challenges South Africa was facing was that ‘party’ was placed above ‘country’.

“When the ruling party in government has held the advantage of having over 50% majority, they have been able to protect themselves when they are guilty, by choosing the party over the country,” he said.

He explained that with so many parties contesting the elections this year, there could be too many parties going to Parliament. He said when it came to coalition talks, his party would be looking at it on an issue-by-issue basis.

“…I believe in South Africa seven out of ten issues we all will be common in. If we want to reduce unemployment, reduce poverty, there is nobody who is going to argue against that, it is only in selective items like regarding foreign policies and how we react or black economic empowerment, those type of issues might have differences,” he said.

He reiterated that in the broader context all parties were working towards a common goal in the country.

“The coalition should be of one party, which is one country, saying South Africa is the main concern,” he said.

Gutta encouraged voters to vote for change, promising a better life for all citizens.

He said over the last 30 years enough opportunity had been given to the current government.

“…but unfortunately the lives of everyday citizens are deteriorating and the reason why SUN Party is a great opportunity is because I am a business person and we have studied and experienced growth models of other counties such as China and we do not want to reinvent the wheel,” he said.

SUN Party wants to champion the promotion of a “Godly government”, equality, and ensuring that poverty is rooted out.

He said the objective of the party was to transform society to become more equitable, noting that there was too much inequality in the country.

He is confident that his party has a guaranteed, tried and tested economic recovery plan.

He noted that if given the mandate to govern, the SUN Party promised a better life after five years of governance.

“…and if not, we are prepared to even step aside and allow someone else to take over, but we are very sure that we can do this task,” he said.

Meanwhile, the SUN Party is in partnership with Afrika United Congress (AUC) which is part of the Nazareth Baptist Church.

He said shortly after the party qualified for the elections, the AUC approached the SUN party.  

Gutta highlighted that the AUC looked at the SUN’s value systems of "God consciousness" and the party felt that they could align with SUN’s values.

“…they approached us and requested to join us in our mission to go and contest the current elections. We have the alliance with them, a possible merger if we see that we can go forward with that in the future,” he said.