UNITED DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT SPEECH BY BANTU HOLOMISA, MP, ELECTION CAMPAIGN SPEECH UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA, MARCH 19 2009

Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening. The UDM

election manifesto is available on our website: www.udm.org.za

Highlight manifesto items:

1. Job creation and growing the economy
2. Fighting crime
3. Better education
4. Improving health care
5. Eradicating corruption
6. Saving the environment
7. Power to the voters: electoral reform

This attempt to have charges against Jacob Zuma dropped before he has had his day in court is just the latest in a long line of anti-democratic campaigns launched by the faction that now controls the ANC.

Since this Polokwane clique attained power they have completely ignored the rules and laws that stand in the way of their grab for total power. Look at the manner in which the Scorpions have been closed down. Or the way in which their leaders have stood on public platforms spouting war-talk and inciting violence. They have systematically sought to undermine the judiciary and other institutions of our democratic state that stand between them and ultimate power.

This total disregard for the rules is demonstrated by the ANC-aligned teacher union telling teachers to abandon the classroom to participate in the ANC's election campaign.

There is a general breakdown of discipline. These people who have issued an election manifesto full of promises

about education,
about law and order,
about fighting corruption
and improving service delivery,

are the very same people who are at the forefront of causing anarchy.

The preach respect for the law, but they practice lawlessness It is not clear who is control of the state. In a democratic state it should be the democratically elected Government. But right now Luthuli House has more influence that the Union Buildings. That is why we have a President never elected by the voters or their representatives in Parliament. A President who looks like a yo-yo because he is told go here, go there by the people in Luthuli House who control him.

A massive abuse of state resources is underway to promote the ruling party in this election campaign.

Luthuli House has hijacked state functions. Unelected people who are not in government are parading at state functions; cutting ribbons and dishing out state resources.

As somebody who has served in government before, I'm in a position to judge this behaviour. If it not stopped we are heading into dangerous territory. If the people who are doing this are going to be in power we are in for more abuse, because they do not tolerate dissent, no matter how legitimate it is. Then we must expect that the next phase is security harassment of political opponents. The apartheid era tactics will return in short order.

We must expect that if they have a two thirds majority they will amend the Constitution and pass legislation that allow them to turn the machinery of the state against their opponents.

Already we can see them attacking and purging perceived political opponents from the civil service, the parastatals and other institutions.

The vice-principal of this institution, Prof Pityana, is currently the target of such a cynical campaign. Many heads have already rolled in this witch-hunt.

It exposes the real motives behind the ruling party's deployment policy; it is about the control of the levers of power for self-interest. Now that they get opposition from within they move quickly to replace people to regain control.

We must not expect a change under the new ANC leadership; they will continue to appoint only people from their inner-circle to the top positions in the civil service, Chapter 9 institutions, parastatals and elsewhere in society.

This tactic encourages incompetence and institutionalises nepotism.

This is why we are currently suffering from such high rates of corruption; tenders are being replicated and shared among comrades and to hell with quality or service delivery.

We must pause and ask a simple question:

Are these people still committed to the original agenda of the liberation which many South Africans fought and died for?

I submit that the Struggle is being hijacked. If one screens the ruling party leaders who are calling the shots today; most of them are dodgy characters.

Their primary aim is to protect their interests, in other words that the taxpayer must foot their bills.

What they have done to the people of this country is cruel:

They have not created jobs, they have withdrawn subsidies in textile and agriculture leaving people languishing in poverty, the strategy being to make people clamour for grants.

It is a scheme to colonise the mind of a poor person. The thinking goes like this:

"Don't create jobs, give them handouts, so that they don't become independent."

This is what I would call neo-colonialism of a special kind.

South Africans now have an opportunity to reflect on this type of governance.

If South Africans want to stop this corruption, stop the abuse of power, and have more innovative solutions to create jobs and fight poverty, then they will never again put all their eggs in one basket.

The time of one-party dominance must end.

Voters must make use of the whole menu of political options that are available to them.

The opposition might not be big at the moment, but the quality of the debate we have introduced has been vital.

How many of you remember that when the Arms Deal was introduced Jacob Zuma on behalf of the Cabinet wrote a letter to SCOPA? They accused SCOPA of abusing its power; actually suggested that SCOPA and the opposition parties were abusing parliamentary powers, because we wanted to investigate the Arms Deal.

Despite that vehement denial, we all know today that their Chief Whip, Yengeni, the Deputy President of the country, Zuma, and the President of the country, Mbeki, did not finish their terms of office because of the Arms Deal scandal.

One common denominator among the former President, Mbeki, his successor, Motlanthe and the ANC President, Zuma, is their flat refusal to institute a Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Arms Deal. It tells you only one thing; it isn't just individuals who benefited from Arms Deal corruption, but the ANC itself as an organisation.

Today we are being told that the charges against Jacob Zuma might be dropped. One of the arguments being advanced is that prosecuting a sitting President would supposedly destabilise the country. That it would not be in the public interest. The subtext is that it might lead to civil unrest and violence.

This is a blackmail tactic. The UDM and other commentators warned them before the Polokwane Conference that they are creating an mess by persisting with Mr Zuma as candidate for President of the ANC and the country.

Now they want turn around and claim it is an untenable situation, when it was entirely avoidable. They created this supposed dilemma and now expect that the rule of law must be suspended to resolve the situation. No. No and no! There is a simple solution Mr Zuma steps aside until he has resolved his criminal case and the ANC nominates another candidate. Or are they telling us that they have no other leaders?

The people of this country know what is contained in the court papers in the Schabir Shaik matter. Zuma keeps saying his prosecution is politically motivated. But every time that argument has been placed before a court it has been rejected, because he never offers evidence, just conjecture.

We encourage him to put his supposed evidence before the court in May and August.

The decision to prosecute Zuma has already been made; if he wants to argue political interference he can do so in court. It is common legal practice to have a case within a case.

Zuma has frustrated this process whilst using taxpayer money; pleading for his day in court until it was offered. For several years now he has used taxpayer money to use every trick in the book to avoid the opportunity to prove his innocence in a court of law.

Why would an innocent man to this very day still be fighting court battles in Mauritius to prevent another man's business diary from being used as evidence? That is strange behaviour for an innocent man.

Zuma and his supporters must swallow their pride and go to court to answer the case against him. End the legal shenanigans that we the taxpayers are funding.

The paper trial from the Schabir Shaik case is still fresh in people's minds; we know that in every act of corruption there is the one corrupting and the one being corrupted. Mr Shaik has been found guilty for his side of that relationship, now Mr Zuma needs to answer for his side. It is his legal right and also his civic duty to stand before a court of law to have his innocence proven or disproved.

I thank you.

Issued by the United Democratic Movement, March 19 2009

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