They came in their hundreds, rather than thousands, and there were a fair number of BMWs and Mercedes in the parking lot outside the Rocklands Civic.
But Sunday’s rally marking the 20th annivesary of the founding of the United Democratic Front was for many still a poignant occasion.
With Finance Minister Trevor Manuel as master of ceremonies in a throwback to his days as a Cape Flats firebrand, they sang the old songs, chanted the old slogans — and also reminded themselves of the challenges that South Africa still faces.
The pyramid-roofed Rocklands hall, in Cape Town’s coloured area of Mitchell’s Plain, was where the anti-apartheid UDF was born in 1983.
Among those who returned to it on Sunday were were former UDF general secretary Popo Molefe, now premier of North West Province, UDF Transvaal secretary Valli Moosa, now national environment minister, Transport Minister Dullah Omar and his safety and security colleague Charles Nqakula.
Also there were UDF stalwarts Cheryl Carolus, now head of SA Tourism, Murphy Morobe, chairman of the Finance and Fiscal Commission, and Willie Hofmeyr, in charge of the Assets Forefeiture Unit.
Omar, who is recovering from cancer treatment, told about 900 people in the hall that one of the key contributions of the UDF was to create a framework in which, through struggle, the people of South Africa could regain their human dignity.
It had also shown the importance of peoples’ struggles and their empowerment at local level.
”All those lessons remain valid for us today; the regaining of human dignity,” he said.
”Because as long as our people are poor, for so long as our people don’t have food to eat, for so long as our people don’t have shelter, their human dignity suffers …
”Comrades, we’ve achieved a great deal but the struggle is not over.”
Defence Minister and ANC national chairman Mosiuoa Lekota, who was the UDF’s publicity secretary, recalled the estimated 12 000 people who attended the 1983 launch, 3 000 of them crammd into the hall itself.
”This place was so packed, people who were hanging on those rafters here were more than on the ground. We though it was going to fall on all of us,” he said.
Referring to suggestions that the UDF should not have disbanded, as it did after the ANC was unbanned, he said that from the beginning, the UDF’s leaders had never claimed to be the leaders of the people.
”It would have been extremely dishonest of us to then when those leaders had been released, when they had come from exile, when they had been unbanned, just because we had enjoyed the limelight of leadership and so on, to now say, look, you are no longer the leaders, we are now the leaders.
”That opportunism we cannot allow.”
The decision to disband was not taken by the ANC, he said.
”The decison was taken by us, the UDF, to disband the UDF because it had served its historical purpose. That must now be put correct.”
Lekota, who in the struggle days was better known by the nickname ”Terror”, called for everyone to rise for a moment’s silence in memory of those who made sacrifices for the struggle.
Amid the struggle nostalgia there was also some electioneering.
Moosa, with an eye on the 2004 polls, declared the rally showed ”aspirant politicians” outside the ANC that it was a party with a history, not a ”bubblegum party” like Patricia de Lille’s Independent Democrats.
”UDF unites, apartheid divides,” he said, echoing the 1980s slogan. ”We unite the people of this country, everywhere. And I can tell you that next year… next year you will find that spirit of unity coming in.
”People are going to be surprised at the manner in which the coloured and Indian community, but especially the white community, is going to be voting for the ANC next year.
”Because the slogan we are going to be using is, ANC unites, DA divides. Amandla!”
UDF co-founder Allan Boesak, who announced earlier in the week he was boycotting the 20th anniversay celebrations because the ANC had ostracised him after his conviction for theft of donor funds, did not attend Sunday’s rally. – Sapa