When United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa launched his election campaign in Johannesburg recently, little did he know that the event would be overshadowed by new developments in the battle for the soul of his former political home –the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
Wednesday October 8 was probably the worst day the UDM could have chosen to launch its campaign, but Holomisa’s address also seemed unhelpful to his party’s cause. While his election campaign was expected to sell the UDM to the South African voter, he mentioned the ANC 26 times in his 12-page address, four times more than he mentioned his own party.
This is the mistake that opposition parties in the country make all the time, according to a political scientist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Zakhele Ndlovu. ”We’re more interested as voters in what the UDM is offering, not what the ANC is doing wrong because we already know that.”
He said opposition parties behave like they’re waiting for the ANC ”to become weaker and then [they] can make inroads”.
Questions posed by the media after Holomisa’s statement were more about the looming split in the ANC than any message he was trying to convey to the voters about the UDM. While he believes it’s a good thing for democracy that a new party might be launched from a breakaway faction of the ANC, he cautioned those involved against acts of opportunism.
”There is a question of trust that they will have to answer: Are you sincere? Or will you act like a Trojan Horse to deceive and capture disaffected ANC voters before the elections, only to enter into a cosy alliance with the ANC after the elections?”
And ”trust” is the word Holomisa is planning to use to attract disgruntled members of the ANC to his party. He said voters have legitimate grounds for distrusting the ANC ”because the past decade is littered with the husks of their empty promises”.
Formed in 1997 by Holomisa and former Cabinet minister Roelf Meyer, who retired from politics in 2000, the UDM says it is determined to reach out to voters who are unhappy with the ANC. But, in its 11th year of existence and contesting its third national election, there is no visible shift in the UDM’s campaign strategy.
There’s nothing new in the big five priorities that Holomisa unveiled last week: socioeconomic development with an emphasis on job creation; fighting crime with a proposal for a super-ministry of crime prevention; the quality of education; corruption; and the reform of the electoral system to allow for a separately elected president, as opposed to the ruling party deciding who the president should be.
Holomisa believes there’s no need to change the party’s priorities because South Africa is still facing the same challenges. ”We’ve been vindicated because our theme in 2004 was that 10 years of unemployment undermine the people’s freedom. Now we’re at the 15th year and there is no change, so we can still repeat it today and substitute 10 with 15,” he said.
Flanked by the party’s national organiser, Thab’sile Msiza, secretary general Humphrey Nobongoza and national treasurer Thandi Nontenja, Holomisa admitted that the UDM’s image is that of a one-man party. ”That’s a perception caused by the fact that we never invested much in marketing.”
But that is about to change, he said. ”In the last 18 months we’ve been training people who’ll form the new shadow cabinet for the coming election.”
Ndlovu highlighted the importance of Holomisa grooming new leaders before voters begin asking questions about his leadership: ”He’s fallen into the trap of the IFP where only one person is the face of the party.”
Grooming and then marketing new leaders will assure the voters that there is a future in the UDM after Holomisa, he said.
The UDM has seven MPs including Holomisa and is represented by four members of the provincial legislature in the Eastern Cape and one in KwaZulu-Natal. The party lost its presence in three provincial legislatures after the 2004 elections: Gauteng, the Western Cape and Limpopo. This loss Holomisa blames on floor-crossing legislation.