Cape Town - Thirty-three years ago, the United Democratic Front (UDF) was launched to oppose the Tricameral Parliament and in the process brought people from different creeds together.
The movement, which was disbanded in 1991, would have celebrated 33 years of existence this year.
It was launched on August 20, 1983 at the Rocklands Civic Centre, in Mitchells Plain, with tens of thousands of people in attendance.
ANC provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs joined the UDF as a student activist and credits the organisation with his involvement in politics today.
"I was a student activist. In 1986 I was a SRC representative and I worked my way up in high school structures. We had a lot of campaigns like the 'hands off our schools' and 'troops out of our townships'.
"I learnt all my organisational skills in the UDF - if I was not pulled into UDF structures I would be a chief gangster because that is the other alternative we had.
"I learnt how to chair a meeting, how to plan a mass rally, how to mobilise and public speaking. It was a generation of ordinary high school students doing extraordinary things."
The UDF boasted names among its ranks like Reverend Frank Chikane, Allan Boesak, Trevor Manuel and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, to name a few.
With a support base of around 3 million members, the UDF built strong relationships with the ANC.
They supported campaigns calling for the release of ANC leaders and other political prisoners.
Jacobs said the members and leaders of the UDF brought people together despite where they came from.
"If you look at its history, it brought a wide sector of people. If you had a campaign it brought people together."
Its slogan was "UDF unites, apartheid divides".
"The UDF was co-ordinated to mass action across fault lines of colour, race, class and gender. Even if we disagreed around sexual orientation or ideologies, it was able to reach out to a diverse community."
He said political parties, particularly the ANC, could learn from what the UDF stood for.
"They had a very non-racial approach and if you look at the ANC's presence in the Western Cape it has focused predominantly on black areas. We are supposed to be the custodians of non-racialism, but we have dropped the ball on that."
'ANC: 'We need to go back to basics'
Thirty-three years after the United Democratic Front was formed, the ANC will commemorate the anniversary of its founding.
While the event is still in its planning stages, ANC provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs said UDF members would share their stories on the day.
"The challenge is not to romanticise the UDF, but to learn and to grow from that. It had a fundamental non-racial character."
He said the celebration would aim to communicate, among other things, that the ANC had heard the electorate and was reflecting on its verdict in the local government elections and was capable of self-correction.
"The ANC is forced to do a big introspection and we take collective responsibility for where we are," he said.
"The non-racial character of the UDF is what we want to focus on. The key is not to talk about the DA, but about what we must do."
The event will have panel discussions on topics such as going back to its grassroots.
"We have to look at what are the lessons... and we need to humble ourselves and go back to basics."
Cape Argus