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Allan Boesak says he remains honest to the history of the UDF 'in my own way'

Allan Boesak says he remains honest to the history of the UDF 'in my own way'
An Wentzel
By An Wentzel
18 Aug 2023
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The anti-apartheid activist-theologian has spoken out sharply against a UDF 40 celebration in Mitchells Plain on Sunday, 20 August. He told Daily Maverick the ANC is just looking for a lifeboat and grasping at the powerful memory and spirit of the UDF. By not joining their efforts, Boesak - a founding member - says he is 'in my own way, trying to be honest to that history'.

Reverend Allan Boesak says the fact that the ANC is trying to use “the power of the remembrance of the spirit of the United Democratic Front (UDF) to drum up support, shows not only how strong the spirit of the UDF still is (some three decades after the organisation ceased to exist) but also how desperate the party is”.

Earlier this month, Boesak made his position clear when he publicly and emphatically declined an invitation to attend the UDF 40 (the 4oth anniversary of the UDF) event at Rocklands Civic Centre in Mitchells Plain.

In a widely publicised letter to Popo Molefe, a former Secretary-General of the UDF, Boesak wrote that by not attending the event, he was not turning his back on his personal history or the history of the UDF. 

Molefe himself was part of the founding of the UDF in 1983 and is on the steering committee for the UDF 40 event. 

Molefe disappointed


Molefe was very disappointed by Boesak’s refusal to attend, responding to the activist-theologian in writing: “Because of the important role that you played in the birth of the UDF, it was inconceivable that any initiative to memorialise it could exclude you. In more ways than one, your name is intrinsic to the history of the UDF.”

Molefe went as far as to ask Boesak not to turn his back on the UDF, to which Boesak replied: “How can I? It has been part of my life for almost 50 years, and turning my back on it is not an option. For me, the struggle did not end in 1994.”

Boesak wrote that he is not turning his back but rather: “In not joining your effort, I am, in my own way, trying to be honest to that history… our people are finding themselves in a new, dare I say, perpetuating state of unfreedom, and particularly in a new struggle to define for ourselves what ‘freedom’ really means.” 

The UDF has deep roots in Mitchells Plain, where it was launched on 20 August 1983, when townships around the country were still deep in the throes of the apartheid struggle. Coloured people and especially young people in the area are saying that they are struggling for jobs and educational opportunities in the new political landscape, citing government policies and identity politics: 

“Why does the government still use the classification ‘Coloured’, why do we still have to tick the box at Home Affairs – are we not South Africans?”

This question was raised a few weeks ago by a young man from Mitchells Plain, at a discussion on where Coloured people belong in Cape Town, hosted by the District Six Museum and facilitated by the young activist Jordan Pieters.

Read more about Allan Boesak here: 

https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/reverend-allan-aubrey-boesak

Speaking to Daily Maverick this week, Boesak, who also attended that District Six Museum discussion, said there was lots to think about in looking at why Coloured and Black people were not united and that the ANC had a lot to answer for. He said South Africa had gone from white nationalist politics under apartheid, to black nationalist politics under the ANC: “When the ANC came back in 1994, that was one of the first things that alienated so much of the old 1960s–1970s UDF activists from the thinking of the ANC, not yet from the ANC as a whole, but from the thinking of the ANC.”

Comments about Coloured concerns


Commenting on the concerns of Coloured youth in Cape Town, he said, “Young Coloured people are driven by legitimate grievances,” adding: “What does it mean when we read that in terms of all the bursaries and scholarships that the government makes available for those children who pass matric, to go to university, only 4% is annually allocated to so-called ‘Coloured’ children?”

“You can’t say to the descendants of the Khoi and the San and the slave communities in the Cape, you are not African – that is an insult so deep I can’t even find words for it, but apparently for the ANC it doesn’t matter.”

This same ANC, he says, is now in big trouble and now they are trying to reclaim the values of the UDF.  "To me that is a ringing testimony of what the UDF, the power of the UDF, still is today”, he said.

Boesak scathing about the DA


On the news that President Cyril Ramaphosa would be joining an anniversary celebration on Sunday, Boesak merely replied: “Proves my point, doesn’t it?”

But the activist is not only scathing of the ANC and its treatment of Coloured people, he also calls the DA “the most successful neo-colonialist project on the continent. And they play that to the hilt here in Cape Town and they play on the division, they hide their racism under something they call meritocracy”. 

Boesak speaks a lot about unity and what it means to be an African child, to students and communities in the Western Cape, and he believes it is possible to revive the UDF – but not under the wing of, or in any relationship with, the ANC.

“‘Speak to us about the real UDF, can we live again’, that’s what one of the aunties said to me – not, can we ‘revive’, can we ‘live’ again – and so I think yes… And that is possible… it’s going to be a lot harder because it’s in a very confusing environment now – politically. The political dynamics have changed.” DM

 

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