We will unite South Africans from all communities in a new political home, built on the foundation of the principles and ideals of our National Constitution. To this end we will address poverty and imbalances in our society, inspired by our unifying love of our Country and its people.
The Core Values, which the United Democratic Movement will uphold and promote and upon which its fundamental policy positions are based, are as follow : 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;
President of the UDM
Major General (Retired) Bantubonke ‘Bantu’ Holomisa co-founded the United Democratic Movement (UDM) on 27 September 1997, and serves as its elected President, which in 2022 celebrated its 25th year of existence. He was again elected as a Member of Parliament in the 2024 National and Provincial Elections and was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans in the Government of National Unity in the 7th Administration in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet.
He was the Commander of the Transkei Defence Force and Head of the Transkei Government (former independent homeland from 1987 to 1994) up to the first National Elections in South Africa in 1994. He was one of the first two black persons accepted by the South African Army College to do a one-year senior staff course for officers in 1984.
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The United Democratic Movement (UDM) has worked diligently to promote the interests of all South Africans over the years. Despite the challenges and stumbling blocks the party rose to the occasion and scored many political victories. Our successes are manifested in our public representation at various levels of government across the country, but also in the influence we have had irrespective of the ruling party’s parliamentary majority.
The UDM’s vision is to be “…the political home of all South Africans, united in the spirit of South Africanism by our common passion for our Country, mobilising the creative power inherent in our rich diversity, towards our transformation into a Winning Nation”.
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19 Jan, 2026
Statement by Zandile Phiri, Acting Secretary General of the United Democratic Movement The United Democratic Movement (UDM) expresses its deepest condolences to the families and communities affected by the devastating floods that have struck Limpopo Province, particularly in the Mopani and Vhembe Districts. The tragic loss of at least 17 lives is a painful reminder of the human cost of extreme weather events and the vulnerability of many of our communities. We extend our heartfelt sympathy to all families who have lost loved ones, homes, and livelihoods. Many residents have been displaced, critical infrastructure has been damaged, and access to basic services has been disrupted. These floods have left communities traumatised and in urgent need of assistance. While the UDM acknowledges the efforts of emergency services, disaster management teams, and humanitarian organisations currently on the ground, we stress that disaster response must be swift, coordinated, and adequately resourced. Government at all levels must ensure that affected families receive immediate relief, including shelter, food, medical care, and psychosocial support. The UDM further calls on national and provincial authorities to prioritise long term disaster preparedness and climate resilience. Flooding is no longer an exceptional occurrence but an increasingly frequent reality. This demands serious investment in stormwater infrastructure, early warning systems, maintenance of riverbanks and bridges, and proper spatial planning that protects communities from preventable harm. As a member of the Government of National Unity, the UDM urges all spheres of government to work together without delay to ensure that relief efforts are effective and transparent, and that reconstruction places the dignity and safety of affected communities at the centre of recovery plans. We also urge residents to heed official warnings and avoid crossing flooded rivers and roads, as conditions remain dangerous. Saving lives must remain the foremost priority. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and will hold government accountable to ensure that no community is abandoned in the aftermath of this disaster.
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19 Jan, 2026
Statement by Zandile Phiri, Acting Secretary General of the United Democratic Movement South Africa is staring down a water emergency that has been decades in the making. The warnings now coming from within government itself confirm what communities have lived with for years: collapsing infrastructure, chronic leaks, failing storage systems, and a state that no longer plans for the future. The Director General of the Department of Water and Sanitation, Sean Phillips, has made it clear that the country’s water problems are deep, structural, and cannot be fixed quickly. This is not a sudden crisis. It is the predictable outcome of 32 years of neglect, mismanagement, and failure to invest in basic infrastructure. Gauteng residents are now being told to cut water consumption by as much as 40 percent, not because South Africa has run out of water, but because municipalities lack storage, lose vast volumes through leaking pipes, and fail to collect revenue. This is an indictment of governance. Households are being asked to sacrifice while billions of litres are lost every year through decaying infrastructure that was never maintained. The situation in Johannesburg is especially alarming. Despite having a technically sound water and sanitation turnaround plan, the City is unable to implement it because of severe financial distress. Contractors are not paid. Projects are abandoned. Funds generated by water services are diverted to cover other municipal pressures, despite National Treasury requirements to ring fence this revenue. This is not a lack of ideas. It is a collapse of discipline, accountability, and political will. The reality is that municipalities across the country are trapped in a vicious downward spiral. High levels of non-revenue water mean less income. Less income means poor maintenance. Poor maintenance leads to further infrastructure failure and even greater water losses. Communities pay the price through outages, rationing, and unsafe supply. Long term relief will only come when major supply projects are completed, but even here the story is one of delay and corruption. Strategic water projects that should have been completed years ago are now only expected late in the decade. South Africans are being asked to endure restrictions today because planning failed yesterday. What is emerging in Gauteng is already visible in other metros, including eThekwini, where leaks, limited storage, flooding damage, and excessive consumption mirror the same warning signs. Regions such as Nelson Mandela Bay and Knysna are facing drought conditions that place millions at risk. This is a national crisis, not an isolated municipal problem. Water has now replaced electricity as the main constraint on economic activity and daily life. Without reliable water, clinics cannot function, schools cannot operate, businesses cannot grow, and human dignity is stripped away. South Africa does not suffer from a lack of expertise. It suffers from a lack of consequence. The UDM has consistently warned that infrastructure cannot be wished into existence through speeches and plans that are never implemented. Maintenance, storage expansion, leak reduction, and disciplined financial management must happen together. Anything less is failure. The time for excuses has passed. South Africa needs urgent, coordinated action to protect water as a strategic national resource. The cost of continued failure will be paid not in reports, but in lost livelihoods, deepening inequality, and growing social instability.
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12 Jan, 2026
Statement by Zandile Phiri, Acting Secretary General of the United Democratic Movement The United Democratic Movement (UDM) extends its sincere congratulations to the Class of 2025 on the release of the National Senior Certificate results. These results represent more than academic outcomes. They reflect perseverance, sacrifice, and resilience by learners who completed their schooling journey under challenging social and economic conditions. We commend the learners who succeeded, not only for their results, but for the discipline and determination required to reach this milestone. We also recognise educators, school support staff, parents, guardians, and communities whose collective effort played a decisive role in supporting learners throughout the year. Education remains a shared national responsibility, and where communities stand together, young people are better equipped to succeed. At the same time, the UDM cautions against celebrating pass rates without confronting the deeper realities within the basic education system. While progress must be acknowledged, it must not be used to conceal persistent inequalities between schools, unsafe and dilapidated infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms, shortages of learning materials, and weak administrative oversight. These challenges continue to deny many learners an equal opportunity to realise their full potential. We are particularly concerned about learners who did not achieve the outcomes they hoped for. Their futures must not be written off or ignored. Government has a responsibility to ensure that meaningful post school pathways exist, including access to second chance programmes, skills training, TVET colleges, and community education opportunities. No young person should be abandoned at the point of disappointment. The UDM reiterates that strong matric results do not automatically translate into a healthy education system. True success will only be measured when every learner, regardless of geography or background, learns in a safe, well-resourced school and is supported by a capable and accountable state. We call on the Department of Basic Education to act decisively on the findings of investigations into systemic failures, to enforce accountability where there has been negligence, and to prioritise infrastructure, teacher support, and learner welfare as matters of urgency. Community support strengthens schools, but government must remain fully accountable for delivering quality basic education. To the Class of 2025, we say this. Be proud of your effort. Your worth is not defined by a single set of results, but by your determination to keep moving forward. The UDM remains committed to advocating for an education system that is fair, inclusive, and worthy of the aspirations of South Africa’s youth.
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08 Jan, 2026
Traditional Leaders present here today, Community elders, Women and youth of KwaTshezi, Leaders of civil society, Councillors, Fellow South Africans, I am honoured to be here at KwaTshezi Great Place, near Coffee Bay, to engage directly with the people of this area. Let me begin by expressing our sincere gratitude to the people of this great place. You are among those who made a conscious decision that South Africa should not become a one party state a chapter that belongs firmly in the past. That decision strengthened our democracy and reaffirmed the principle that leadership must always be accountable to the people. For that we thank you. History has shown us that when power is concentrated for too long accountability weakens. Even law enforcement agencies have not been spared. When one reflects on the issues raised through the Madlanga Commission and the corruption exposed by General Mkhwanazi it becomes clear that under a one-party state some individuals, including General Mkhwanazi, would not still be occupying positions of authority today by virtue of being whistleblowers. This reality reinforces the urgency of ethical leadership. Towards the end of 2025 at the Cabinet Lekgotla one of the key resolutions tabled dealt precisely with this crisis of accountability. President Cyril Ramaphosa openly expressed frustration and anger at the slow pace and lack of prosecutions in corruption related cases. He went as far as to state that ministers or directors general who fail to act or who serve as gatekeepers for criminals should pack and go. The doors are open for them to leave. That is what he said. Another key resolution was the implementation of the Zondo Commission findings. I therefore anticipate that 2026 will be one of the years in which the Government of National Unity places strong emphasis on strengthening the criminal justice system. This will help restore confidence in the country’s leadership and enable decisive action on the triple challenges facing the nation. There can be no rebuilding of the country without consequences for wrongdoing. During the same Lekgotla, high levels of crime, unemployment, and the challenge of illegal immigration were also discussed at length. The reports of the Auditor General over the past thirty years tell a painful story. Announcements without implementing, findings without consequence management, and a culture of impunity across the board. Unfortunately this pattern has also engulfed the Department of Defence. People are aware of the pending criminal cases against the former Minister of Defence. This is part of what we inherited as a Government of National Unity, and we are confronting it directly. Within the Department of Defence, the Hawks, the Auditor General of South Africa, the Special Investigating Unit, and the Military Police are now working together to restore integrity and clean the image of the department. I am proud to say that I have been part of coordinating this operation. The Auditor General has highlighted that there is improvement in addressing their queries. Acting on a whistle blower report, I took steps to halt an irregular tender at Armscor in 2025. The Armscor Board subsequently cancelled that deal. We are currently following up on calls by Members of Parliament to investigate a contract in which Armscor allegedly awarded a tender for troop armoured plate carriers. This work is not easy. We are dealing with a culture that developed over nearly thirty years where the misuse of state resources became normalised. The era of state capture embarrassed South Africa and severely damaged its institutions. By the end of the Government of National Unity term when, we hand over to the next government after 2029 election, we must be able to present a report that reflects a country in a far better state one that has decisively addressed the failures of the past three decades. We saw early warning signs as far back as the 1996 Sarafina Two scandal and later, the 1998 Arms Deal. Auditor General reports on the South African National Defence Force point to lack of accountability weak consequence management and alleged corruption dating back as early as 2006. We do not have the luxury of time. We must deal decisively with corruption namasela without fear or favour. The stolen money from departments, state owned entities, and parastatals has directly contributed to the collapse of infrastructure and the failure to improve services. It is the reason communities still lack proper roads, schools, clinics, fibre connectivity, police vehicles, and military equipment. Corruption is not an abstract crime. It is the reason people continue to suffer. We therefore congratulate the recently appointed National Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Mothibi, and wish him well in his role. As a former head of the Special Investigating Unit, he has first hand knowledge of how corruption has damaged South Africa. We urge him to prioritise the backlog of cases within the Defence Force that have placed significant pressure on the National Prosecuting Authority. In the same vein, I wish to commend the Special Investigating Unit for recovering over 1.6 billion lost within the Department of Defence, declared when they were briefing the portfolio committee on defence in a closed session. We look forward to working with the new head of the SIU and stand ready to cooperate fully with his team to restore integrity and accountability. That is why the unfulfilled promises to this area are so painful. The people of KwaTshezi were promised water from the Mthatha Dam to Coffee Bay. Trenches were dug and later filled in again. No water came. Neither have there been action taken against the fingered officials of the OR Tambo District who allegedly squandered the funds for this project. You were promised a proper road from the Viedgesville off ramp on the N2 to Coffee Bay. Former Minister Mbalula and SANRAL assured the community that a new road would be built, yet nothing materialised. Another route that has deteriorated severely is the turnoff from the Coffee Bay route that links it to Elliotdale. Its condition is now worse than it was in the past, to the point where sections are no longer usable. Today, these roads remain in a state of severe disrepair. These roads lead to tourism centres where international resorts such as Coffee Bay and Hole in the Wall resorts are housed. As residents of King Sabata Dalindyebo particularly here in Mqanduli we must now act collectively. There is a need for a formal approach led by traditional leaders, civil society, councillors, and community representatives to engage the national government directly. This approach must not be a talk shop. It must demand clear commitments on roads infrastructure and development timelines. It must also summon network providers Vodacom, MTN, and Telkom to account for when rural connectivity especially in Mqanduli will be improved. As we approach local government elections, we must also confront governance failures honestly. In line with what you have declared at the national level to get rid of one-party dominance, that must be reflected in the upcoming elections. Your vote can give way to concept of coalition governance to cascade to municipalities such as King Sabata Dalindyebo and OR Tambo District where long standing problems persist. Where systems fail communities, alternatives must be explored in the interests of the people. Finally, the process that began in 2024 of sharing power among political parties has made it clear that after the 2029 elections, it will no longer be a foregone conclusion which party provides the President of South Africa. We must therefore remain vigilant and begin serious discussions about the kind of leadership required to take South Africa forward beyond this term. The communities here must satisfy themselves that we will have leaders who would have passed the test of public scrutiny. The people of KwaTshezi are not asking for miracles. They are asking for honesty accountability and action. That is a fair demand and one we must meet. I thank you.
