Statement by Yongama Zigebe, UDM Secretary General
16 December marks a day in this nation’s history where we celebrate and foster greater unity amongst our people and focus nation building. The United Democratic Movement (UDM) therefore marks this day with all South Africans in the spirit of our South Africanism in celebration of nationhood and unity. The UDM agrees with the sentiment that reconciliation is also about each person taking the responsibility to fight racism, discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
Most South Africans, despite their differences, generally agree about their national identity, express pride in and express the desirability of South Africa being a united nation comprised of different groups. The majority of South Africans have found a peaceable way of living their daily lives in harmony with each other.
But most of us can also agree that apartheid’s legacies continue to shape present-day South Africa and that government has not done enough to redress the backlogs and imbalances of the past.
The people’s trust in government and public institutions have been eroded over the past almost three decades of African National Congress rule. The people of this country are proud to be South African but have no pride in their government or their who their senior governmental officials are.
The ruling party inherited infrastructure from the apartheid government, which they failed dismally to maintain and did not even expand upon to cater for a growing population. It’s a similar scenario with the state-owned enterprises, which are being run down to the ground and looted clean. All at the expense of the taxpayer and the citizens of this country who suffer from service delivery ills.
The UDM is the answer, has a party platform and core values, which South Africans can resonate with that aligns with the spirit of reconciliation, those are:
• respect for life, dignity and human worth of every individual;
• integrity in public- and private life;
• the individual rights and freedoms enshrined in our Country’s Constitution;
• tolerance and respect for the rights and freedoms of others;
• solidarity in the common spiritual ownership of all that is good in our Country;
• national self-discipline based on an acceptance that each right and freedom carry with it a corresponding and equal obligation and responsibility;
• national moral regeneration towards a clear distinction between right and wrong, between what is acceptable conduct and what not, between good and evil;
• economic policies based on moral values and;
• freedom of religion and worship.
The UDM gives all South Africans our best wishes on this Reconciliation Day.
Issued by:
UDM National Office
Mr Yongama Zigebe
UDM General Secretary
