Amy Musgrave
9 October 2008
Johannesburg — THE United Democratic Movement (UDM) launched its election campaign yesterday, emphasising the issues of job creation, crime, education, corruption and electoral reform.
UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said the issue of trust would play a big role in next year's general elections because the ruling African National Congress (ANC) had littered the past decade with the "husks of their empty promises".
The UDM would initiate electoral reform to ensure that the South African president was chosen by the citizens, and not the winning party . The reform would also see the introduction of constituencies into the proportional representation system to ensure that politicians had a specific, geographically defined community they represented.
The UDM, like other opposition parties, is hoping that infighting in the ANC and the likelihood of a breakaway party will help it garner more votes . Its priorities for the elections are similar to the ANC's and could attract ANC supporters.
"Now is not the time to be despondent, or become sidetracked by the politics of thuggery and infighting," Holomisa said. "But it is necessary for the majority of voters to ask themselves: can we honestly trust the 'new' ANC, or a breakaway party for that matter, to rise above their factional, inward-looking and self-serving preoccupations?"
Instead of expanding the overall wealth and prosperity of the country, the ANC had succeeded only in partly redistributing the existing wealth. SA needed a "Marshall Plan" of government-led economic stimulation because it was creating another "lost generation".
The high rates of graduate unemployment could be addressed by filling the government's numerous vacant posts with graduates .
The party would also radically simplify the bureaucracy that was hampering entrepreneurship, and expand incentives and support for small businesses.
On crime, the party would set up a "super-ministry" to ensure an integrated and assertive response to crime.
"Can you trust the ANC to deal decisively with criminals when it has a solid track record of attacking the courts and authorities whenever one of its leaders is caught on the wrong side of the law?" Holomisa said.
Corruption was rampant in the ANC. "We contend that much of the heated factional conflict in the ANC is driven by the desire to cash in on lucrative state contracts, not because of any policy differences."
The UDM would also translate the large education budget into real education by ensuring schools got back to basics. "Teachers must teach; students must study; and a culture of learning and discipline must be restored ," Holomisa said.
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