UDF stalwarts lash ANC corruption, factions
Stop wanting to benefit alone, while millions are living in dire poverty
FACTIONALISM and corruption within the ANC took centre stage during the commemoration of the United Democratic Front (UDF) launch at the Rocklands Civic Centre in Mitchells Plain yesterday.
One of the speakers, Popo Molefe, who was elected as the first secretary-general of UDF in 1983, told yesterday’s gathering of about a thousand people that “the critical issue (for the formation of the UDF) was to defeat apartheid and liberate our people”.
“The challenge is to understand that we need to build a better life for ordinary South Africans,” said Molefe.
He said corruption within the ANC was hindering progress and left many ordinary people vulnerable and unemployed, and that inequality was rife.
“We did not fight to enrich certain individuals. We need to confront corruption. People are beginning to lose faith in the ANC. We should guard against anything that undermines our constitution,” said Molefe, to loud applause.
One of the first UDF leaders, Veronica Siemmers, said that 23 years after democracy, “we still don’t have what we fought for”.
Siemmers asked ANC leaders to “stop your factionalism because it is killing our organisation. We want to tell them that a faction is a division. Stop wanting to benefit alone while millions of South Africans are living in dire poverty.”
Cosatu provincial chairperson Tony Ehrenreich said a large number of South Africans were still not free.
“We did not struggle only to vote every five years, but to put in place the Freedom Charter,” he said. “The wealth of this country does not belong to the Guptas but to the people of this country.
“If you don’t want to align yourself with corruption, you must get out of this organisation. We need the same leaders that we had in the UDF,” said Ehrenreich.
Former Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool said the ANC needed to get rid of corrupt individuals in order to take back the City of Cape Town and the provincial government.
“Let us spend the next few months cleaning the ANC,” said Rasool.