Hajj Watch Committee Member resigns sighting betrayal by leadership for getting into bed with the DA
Cape Town – Imraahn Ismail-Mukaddam, a member and long-serving executive of Hajj Watch NPC, has resigned in protest, alleging that the organization’s leadership sabotaged a critical legal case by secretly collaborating with the Democratic Alliance (DA).
In his resignation letter to the Board of Directors, dated 20 September 2025, Ismail-Mukaddam stated his immediate departure was due to a "profound moral betrayal," citing the leadership's decision to "climb into bed with the Democratic Alliance." He expanded on this in a subsequent statement, detailing what he describes as a catastrophic tactical error that has crippled the organization's ability to seek accountability.
The core of the dispute lies in a parliamentary motion that was drafted by the DA's Haseena Ismail and co-written by members of Hajj Watch without consultating Ismail-Mukaddam claims this unilateral action destroyed a carefully prepared legal strategy poised to challenge the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) and the South African Hajj and Umrah Council (SAHUC).
“We had secured pro bono counsel from Attorney Nazier Chafeker and Advocate Yusuf Khan Dalvie, who had prepared an urgent interdict application,” Ismail-Mukaddam stated. “The case was built on the foundation that DIRCO acted unlawfully by permitting SAHUC, a private entity, to sign binding agreements with a foreign government. This was our best chance for accountability.”
He explained that the secret parliamentary motion preempted this legal action. “By introducing a political process, the element of urgency required for an interdict was nullified,” he said. “The motion provides SAHUC and DIRCO with a defense that changes resulted from parliamentary intervention, not their own wrongdoing. Any future litigation will now be a protracted and costly process.”
The resignation, however, is rooted in more than strategic disagreement. For Ismail-Mukaddam, the collaboration with the DA represents an insurmountable moral breach.
“I cannot and will not stand alongside those in this organization who have chosen to climb into bed with the Democratic Alliance,” he wrote in his resignation letter. “The DA endorses the state that is massacring my brothers and sisters in Gaza... To use our cause as a tool for a party that supports this atrocity is a violation I cannot forgive.”
He concluded his public statement by linking the two failures: “The unilateral decision to collaborate with an external political party has irrevocably compromised a carefully constructed legal strategy. This failure of governance has left the organization with significantly diminished legal recourse. I can no longer serve on a committee that has allowed such a fundamental breach of process and strategic judgment to occur.”
When approached for comment, the leadership of Hajj Watch NPC had not yet responded. The resignation marks a significant schism within the organization, raising serious questions about its future direction and governance.
