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Special courts to investigate and prosecute those in the public and private sector involved in corruption will become a reality if the UDM should come to power, the party’s president Bantu Holomisa said on Saturday.
"Our three guiding pillars – integrity, dignity and prosperity – feed our minds and our actions as a modern political party that firmly stands against corruption and the exploitation of South Africans, especially the poor who cannot weather the effects of the ruling party’s dishonest, bungling government and don’t care attitude," Holomisa said at its manifesto launch at Isaac Wolfson Stadium in Port Elizabeth.
"We now know the cost of state capture. Billions of rand have been stolen and many state institution and agencies have been weakened."
Holomisa said the May elections is "all about trust".
"We have a president who pleads with you to trust him; this despite his party. Why? Because he knows that his party, the ANC, is not worthy of your trust.
"How can it be trusted when it stood meekly by as Jacob Zuma and his cronies looted the state and stole your hard-earned taxes and deprived you of economic opportunity?"
Holomisa said the UDM’s manifesto puts the economic needs of South Africans at the centre of its plan for government.
Shared vision
"South Africa needs an inspiring and shared economic vision of where we are going in the next 10 to 20 years. Looking back, the Codesa negotiations only focused on political freedom and consequently economic policy formulation has been left to individual ministers to the detriment of the development of a comprehensive and coherent economic plan," he said.
"This approach to policy formulation is not sustainable, because as soon as changes occur in government, a new administration tends to disown previously adopted policies. Yet the same political party has sponsored those ever-changing policies."
Improved basic healthcare and an improved criminal justice system was also on its list of promises.
One of its main priorities would be to invest in school resources, Holomisa said.
"There are major discrepancies at state schools when one talks resource spending and infrastructure. So have the necessary tools to fulfill their obligations to our children and others lack even the bare necessities.
"President Ramaphosa announced that advances technology would be used to enhance teaching, but one cannot imagine a situation where a child works with a tablet at a mud school, who has no electricity to even charge the battery."
SA has lost its moral compass, Holomisa said, pointing to rampant crime and corruption as evidence to this.
"During the years of apartheid, the work of faith-based organisations formed a vital part of overthrowing that discriminatory regime.
"It could, however be argued that in the SA of today, they play a less critical part in leading our people on the path of decency, honesty and goodness. The UDM therefore calls on all faith-based organisations to again be the voice of reason for a nation in moral dire straits".
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