Keynote address by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the Founding of the United Democratic Front, Johannesburg City Hall, Gauteng

20 August 2023

Programme Directors, Murphy Morobe and Cheryl Carolus,

Former President Thabo Mbeki

Former President Kgalema Motlanthe,

Seaparankoe Mama Sophie De Bruyn,

Former leaders and activists of the United Democratic Front,

Representatives of civil society,

Comrades,

Friends,

It is my distinct pleasure to be here today to commemorate the founding of the United Democratic Front, a mighty demonstration of people’s power that was so vital to the achievement of our freedom.

We are honoured to have many of the founding members of the UDF with us here today.

You were torch-bearers in the onward march towards a free country, and we salute you all. It is heartening that you remain committed to playing an active role in the political life of our country.

Forty years ago at the Rocklands Community Hall in Mitchell’s Plain, the UDF was launched as a popular front ‘to bolster the tide of the struggle’ against the great injustice of apartheid.

The delegates came from the length and breadth of South Africa. They came representing some 575 civic organisations, trade unions, student formations, the women’s movement, faith-based groups, anti-apartheid coalitions and community organisations.

As we know, the launch date of the 20th of August was deliberately chosen.

This was the date the regime planned to introduce a constitutional amendment to set up the Tricameral Parliament, a hated structure with its separate Houses for whites, coloureds and Indians. The African majority was left out in the cold.

It was an attempt to lend legitimacy to an illegitimate system. The very purpose was to divide the ranks of the oppressed.

In a massive show of defiance, the UDF was introduced to South Africa and the world at a public rally in Mitchell’s Plain attended by 10,000 people.

The new organisation had the potent slogan ‘UDF Unites, Apartheid Divides’.

The UDF would go on to mobilise communities across South Africa against so-called grand apartheid, a system of brute force and petty laws.

The UDF organised protests, rent, consumer and bus boycotts, and strikes and stay-aways. Affiliates assisted the families of detainees, campaigned for their release, organised political funerals and conducted political education.

What made the UDF unique was its distinct political culture.

It was able to forge alliances with organisations that identified with its aims.

It had no rigid structures, hierarchies and red tape. This enabled it to grow rapidly and expand its influence.

At its height, there were three million community members and more than 400 organisations under the banner of the UDF.

It is clear that the UDF transformed the political landscape. What is remarkable is that it achieved so much when it was in existence for just eight short years.

We remember the many UDF leaders who are no longer with us who kept our people’s hopes alive: Griffiths Mxenge, Victoria Mxenge, Sister Bernard Ncube, Rev Beyers Naude, Archie Gumede, Billy Nair, Albertina Sisulu, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and the many leading lights of the movement.

We also remember the many UDF activists who were detained without trial, tortured and killed by the regime, and the many, many men and women from across South Africa who made up the rank and file of the UDF.

History will record your great contribution.

Comrades, Friends

Many in our country today have been vocal about their unease at the gulf between the values that guided the liberation struggle and the country we live in today.

Many in this country, including some gathered here today, are disappointed that the non-racialism and unity embodied by the UDF has been lost.

To many, it has been supplanted by ethnic chauvinism and factionalism, even within our the liberation movement.

That is why, as the UDF@40 Call to Action puts it, we have to recover the best traditions, ethos and values of our democratic struggle.

The UDF was defined as much as what it was fighting for as by what it was fighting against.

The UDF used people’s power to break the power of an illegitimate regime.

Its generational mission was clear. It was a grassroots movement of building up, of empowering people, of promoting personal agency and of encouraging citizens to play an active role in their communities.

For this and many reasons, characterising the UDF solely as a mass protest movement would be a half- story, and the lessons we can learn from the UDF experience cannot be confined to people taking to the streets.

Of the many proud legacies of the UDF, a stronger civil society is one of the most important.

It is undeniable that civil society has flourished since 1994.

This is a barometer of good health for democracy.

We have a free press, people enjoy freedom of association and the right to protest.

People’s power is alive and well. We have seen it being harnessed to drive change.

In the late nineties, the activism of the Treatment Action Campaign and others campaigned for access to HIV/Aids treatment, and won.

In 2015, the #FeesMustFall student movement laid the basis for dramatic changes to access to higher education.

In 2018, the #TotalShutdown against gender-based violence brought government and civil society together to develop a clear, united plan to tackle the scourge.

Now a number of new laws have come into effect that give greater protection to survivors of gender-based violence and harsher sentences for perpetrators.

The mass mobilisation under the UDF umbrella in the 1980s was to realise the aspirations of the Freedom Charter.

Since the advent of democracy we have worked actively to fulfil these aspirations, and those of the Constitution that was inspired by the Freedom Charter.

Equality before the law and human rights for all, expanded access to education and health care, land reform and restitution, an extensive social protection system and workers’ rights are just some of the measurable gains we have registered.

Even as we know that we still have much farther to go, we should not diminish what has been achieved.

As government, we have expressed our determination to ‘leave no-one behind’, which is in keeping with the spirit of the great UDF.

The reality is that despite our gains, millions of our citizens feel left behind.

Many coloured and Indian compatriots who were the backbone of the UDF feel excluded from our nation’s political life, and point to their under-representation in decision-making structures as evidence of this.

Many white South Africans wrongly believe there is no place for them in South Africa today, and some have drifted towards laager-style politics and a siege mentality.

Women feel marginalised and unprotected as they are preyed upon in their homes, at schools, at places of higher learning, and even in church.

Young people, a third of our population, are feeling the cold winds of exclusion from opportunity. They see politics as the preserve of old people and aren’t voting.

By far those who feel most excluded and neglected are the urban and rural poor, the unemployed and society’s most vulnerable.

Comrades, friends,

We are alive to the reality that in a number of respects the democratically-elected government has fallen short of meeting the needs of the South African people.

Corruption, wasteful expenditure and general malfeasance are rot that must be excised before they completely reverse our democratic gains.

However this important occasion should not come be remembered for having been a drawn-out history lesson, or another opportunity to dissect the shortcomings of the government of the day.

Let us remember what we are all fighting for.

The biggest enemy of the people is poverty.

This is the tide that must turn. This is the war we have to wage. Against exclusion, marginalisation and inequality in all its forms.

And so when we make a call for a stronger civil society, for transformation, for accountability, we must be as committed as the UDF was to leaving no-one behind.

The resurgence of people’s power as a force for positive change, with its calls for an active citizenry, has come at the right time.

We remember Amilcar Cabral’s words that ‘the people are not fighting for ideas, but to win material benefits.’

What matters most to the South African people is that they want a better life for themselves and their children. They want to lead lives of dignity, in security, and to have decent work.

Affording one’s rent, putting food on the table, having running water and decent sanitation, sending ones children to school – these are the bread-and-butter issues the UDF was seized with helping people secure. It was part of its political activism.

When the UDF was at its most powerful, South Africa was a different place. The enemy was clear.

Today the threats to the wellbeing of the South African people come in many guizes.

These threats are corruption, malfeasance and abuse of public office for personal gain.

These threats are also greedy corporates that exploit workers, evade paying tax and hoard their profits instead of employing more people or ploughing them back into communities.

These threats include the gangsters and criminal syndicates that are making life a living hell for our citizens, including on the Cape Flats where the UDF was formed 40 years ago.

They are the patriarchal attitudes, sexism and misogyny that are fuelling violence against women and children.

They are immoral business practices that hurt the poor the most – practices like price gouging, the exploitation of tenants by landlords, illegal evictions, selling unsafe food and predatory lending.

They are xenophobia, homophobia, tribalism and all forms of chauvinism that are breeding fear, mistrust and even stoking violence within and amongst communities.

And so when calls are made to reclaim our democracy we cannot but be categorical about how we plan to go about doing so.

It is encouraging to note the very practical proposals made by UDF@40 on how to catalyse an active citizenry.

These include encouraging citizens to join community policing forums and school governing bodies; for youth to volunteer in communities; reviving sports, arts and culture clubs for young people in communities; and stronger ward committees.

This shows an understanding that the social ills in our country are complex, and that people’s power must be directed to bring about change across society, and not just in our politics.

History does not demand of us another manifesto, steering committee or political super-structure. The UDF’s place in history is assured, as is that of its leaders.

What is demanded of us is that we go back to communities, to listen to them, to encourage them, and to unite them, as the UDF did.

If we are looking to recapture the momentum that made the UDF such a formidable force, we first need to understand the conditions under which citizens are living, and what matters to them most.

Comrades, Friends,

In March 1966 Dr Martin Luther King Jr gave a lecture at the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

Reflecting on the progress of the civil rights movement he said:

“Somewhere we must come to see that human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the time and persistent work of dedicated individuals.”

Gathered here today, and listening from their homes or places of work are many such dedicated men and women.

The task before those who were fortunate enough to witness the birth of the UDF and be part of the movement is not to cling to the baton, or put it in a museum somewhere so we can marvel over it and tell stories about it.

Our task, our duty, is to pass it on.

On this 40th anniversary of the UDF let us set our sights high, on what must be done to overcome the most immediate challenges facing the South African people.

This, our democracy, is strong, despite a number of attempts to weaken it.

But democracy cannot build itself, it is up to us to do so.

So let us build it up. Let us take forward our gains.

Let us define and drive a new generational mission that in the spirit of the mighty UDF unites, inspires and leaves no-one behind.

I thank you.

Issued by The Presidency, 20 August 2023