Africa-Press – South-Africa. President Cyril Ramaphosa will speak at the United Democratic Front’s (UDF) 40th-anniversary celebrations on Sunday, but the organisation says it will keep party politics out of it.
The UDF, an anti-apartheid civic movement that’s hosting its anniversary at the Johannesburg City Hall in Gauteng, released its programme.
It revealed that Ramaphosa, Cape Town Anglican Archbishop Thabo Mokgola, and former North West premier Popo Molefe would speak at the event.
Reverend Frank Chikane, who served as the director-general in the Presidency during Thabo Mbeki’s administration and on the UDF’s steering committee, said the organisation wanted to work with community formations and not necessarily with political parties.
“So, all parties are welcome to participate in this. When we go to Soweto [in Gauteng], we don’t ask, ‘Which party do you belong to?’ We don’t want headlines that say the UDF supports that or other parties, Chikane told News24.
He was speaking after the event was announced at a briefing.
“We are acting above any other political interest – we are about the interests of the people of South Africa,” Chikane added.
However, he added that the UDF would not remain apolitical, saying the formation would actively influence the country’s politics.
Last month, he was elected to the national executive committee of the ANC Veterans League.
Meanwhile, at an earlier UDF briefing, Chikane rejected the use of the incendiary “sellout” term, popularised by EFF leader Julius Malema at Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s April 2018 funeral, when referring to UDF members.
Chikane said no “cabal” determined the organisation’s work, adding that the UDF was a “massive movement that made decisions for itself”.
“People paid a huge price; people died. These people that keep talking about ‘sellouts’ don’t know what they are talking about. There was a time when we were having mass funerals every weekend, and I reached a stage where I said, ‘I will not go to those funerals anymore.’
“Because you can’t be normal if you [preside over] mass funerals every weekend.”
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