MALAIKA MAHLATSI | Revival of UDF could engineer SA’s rebirth

The 40th anniversary of the United Democratic Front (UDF) has been marked by events across the country. In the Western Cape province, where the UDF was launched at the Rocklands Community Hall in Mitchell’s Plain on August 20 1983, the anniversary has an especially profound meaning today as the province battles the glaring and persistent legacy of apartheid. In the rest of SA, the anniversary of the UDF also holds significant meaning, particularly as the country inches towards the general elections scheduled to take place next year. There is no question that these elections will mark an important moment in our country’s history.

The ANC is facing its toughest election yet, particularly in Gauteng, where it won by the skin of its teeth in the 2019 elections. The potential loss of Gauteng holds significant meaning for an ANC that is faced with an existential crisis characterised by the haemorrhaging of electoral support and the qualitative weakness of the organisation. Of significance is also the growing support for opposition parties such as the EFF, the Patriotic Alliance (PA) and ActionSA. At local government level, this growth, compounded with the ANC’s electoral decline, has forced municipalities into coalitions. There is empirical evidence that this scenario will play itself out at provincial and potentially national level. This would rewrite history as we know it, ushering SA into an age of national-level multiparty governance not seen since the government of national unity in 1994. 

At various events marking the 40th anniversary of the UDF, there have been calls to resuscitate the movement. During its existence between 1983 and 1991, the UDF comprised of more than 400 public organisations, including churches, students’ unions, trade unions, women’s organisations, community based organisations, youth groups and other organs of mass power.

While its primary objective was to oppose the Tricameral Parliament that sought to give nominal representation to Indians and coloureds (alongside whites) to the exclusion of black people, its fundamental aim was to fight against the system of apartheid in all manifestations, through the use of mass mobilisation and community organising. Its disbandment during negotiations might have been deemed necessary, but in retrospect, it was premature.

The idea that the fight for democracy would end when apartheid ended was ill-conceived, for it presupposed that democracy would resolve structural constructs that SA inherited from its colonial and apartheid past. More than this, it presupposed that under a democratic government, human rights would be protected and the ANC-led government would be moral and ethical. History has proven both assumptions wrong.

In the democratic dispensation, a popular front in the form of the UDF is still needed to not only hold the government accountable, but to also fight for the rights of the millions of South Africans (and immigrants) who remain on the margins.

Such a front, though political in nature, must operate outside the confines of the state in order to be effective and representative. The fact of the matter is that the South African party-political landscape is polarised, making it impossible to unite people towards a common goal. But it is clear that the prosperity of our country depends on this unity – on a social contract to which we may all feel a sense of ownership and responsibility. No political party can achieve this feat.

However, a popular front comprising of organs of mass power, with struggles rooted in communities and which uses community-based tools for mobilising and organising could be the most effective vehicle to drive us towards a better SA. For this reason, a resuscitation of the UDF might prove to be a critical part of the solution that our country desperately needs to finally begin its rebirth.