This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "United Democratic Movement" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(June 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

United Democratic Movement
Abbreviation	UDM
President	Bantu Holomisa
Secretary-General	Yongama Zigebe
Chairperson	Bongani Msomi
Deputy President	Nqabayomzi Kwankwa
Founder	Bantu Holomisa &Roelf Meyer
Founded	27 September 1997 (1997-09-27)
Split from	African National Congress
Headquarters	Ground Floor CPA House 101 Du Toit Street Pretoria Gauteng
Student wing	United Democratic Students' Movement
Youth wing	United Democratic Movement Youth Vanguard
Women's wing	United Democratic Movement Women’s Organisation
Ideology	Social democracy
Political position	Centre-left
National affiliation	Progressive Caucus (2024)
Colours	Yellow   Green   Red
National Assembly seats	3 / 400
NCOP seats	1 / 90
Provincial Legislatures	3 / 487
Cape Town City Council	1 / 231
Party flag
Website
udm.org.za
Politics of South Africa Political parties Elections

TheUnited Democratic Movement (UDM) is acentre-left,social-democratic,South African political party, formed by a prominent formerNational Party leader,Roelf Meyer (who has since resigned from the UDM), a formerAfrican National Congress andTranskeihomeland leader,GeneralBantu Holomisa, and a former ANC Executive Committee member, John Taylor. It has an anti-separatist, pro-diversity platform; and supports anindividualist South Africa with a strong moral sense, in bothsocial andeconomic senses.

Mongameli Bobani was the Executive Mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality from 2018 to 2019 and the first mayor from the UDM since the party governedKing Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality (2000-2002).

In the 2024 generalelection, UDM got three seats with 0.49% of the vote in Parliament (National Assembly).^[1]

In June 2024, United Democratic Movement agreed to join the ANC-ledgovernment of national unity (GNU).^[2] Leader of the UDM, Bantubonke ‘Bantu’ Holomisa, became the Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans in the Government of National Unity.^[3]

During his testimony at theTruth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Holomisa made reference to a possible bribe that was paid to the former Prime Minister ofTranskei, ChiefGeorge Matanzima and MissStella Sigcau, the then incumbent Prime Minister. Holomisa was expelled from the ANC because of these allegations. In November 1996, Holomisa publicly announced consulting South Africans on the need or not for a new political party. With this objective, the National Consultative Forum (NCF) was established on 8 February 1997.

Roelf Meyer left the National Party on 17 May 1997, along with fellow politiciansNilo Botha,Takis Christodoulou,Kobus du Plessis, andAnnelizé van Wyk, some of whom had resigned their seats in the Gauteng Legislature. At a three-day strategic planning conference in May 1997, it was decided that a political movement should be established capable of unifying people around shared values across racial, historical, ideological and social dividing lines. The New Movement Process (NMP) was then established.

Bantu Holomisa and Roelf Meyer (who had met with Meyer still representing theNational Party to discuss the process for a new movement) again met at Loftus Versveld, in mid-1997, to discuss working together and agreed in principle to explore the possibility of formal cooperation. A Joint Committee (JC) between the NCF and the NMP was formed to look into matters of common interest. The JC amalgamated its two (NCF and NMP) technical support teams into a Technical Committee (TC) to act as its executive body to implement the brief of the JC. This was to “look into matters of common interest between the two sides… consider… the establishment of a new party at an appropriate time… (and) in regard to the latter question… (investigate) matters of strategy, time scales, policy and funding”. The TC was jointly chaired by Kobus du Plessis (NMP) and Joel Mafenya (NCF) and its first meeting took place at the Carlton Hotel on 22 June 1997. After a joint strategic session at the Vaal Dam in July 1997 it was agreed that a new political party should be formed. The United Democratic Movement was launched at the World Trade Centre, inKempton Park, on 27 September 1997.^[4] Bantu Holomisa was elected the party's first president at its first national congress in June 1998.

As one of several newcomer parties, UDM was among the most successful in the1999 general election; the party garnered 3.4% and earned seats in six of the nine provincial legislatures. It also became the official opposition in the Northern Province and its stronghold, the Eastern Cape.

In the 2000 municipal elections, the UDM won control of theKing Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality. The party lost the council during thefloor crossing period, however, and this would begin a time of decline; In the2004 general election, nine members were elected to the National Assembly, five fewer than were elected in the 1999 election. The UDM lost its position as the official opposition in the Eastern Cape after two of its members in the Eastern Cape Legislature had defected to the splinterUnited Independent Front in 2005.

On October 8, 2008, the UDM announced its kickoff of the2009 general election campaign. It also welcomed over 300 former members of the ANC who had left their former party following the deposition of former presidentThabo Mbeki in September 2008. Almost 1,000^[5][6] formerAfrican National Congress members joined the party after the ANC recalled President Mbeki and replaced him withKgalema Motlanthe. Nevertheless, the election would continue the downward trend of the UDM, with the party retaining only four MPs with 0.8% of the vote and losing its representation in all provinces except the Eastern Cape, where it was pushed into fourth place.

In 2014, a faction of theCongress of the People led byMbhazima Shilowa joined the UDM.^[7] This helped to strengthen the party in its Eastern Cape stronghold, where it likely gained support from many previous COPE supporters. In the2014 general elections, UDM support remained at very low levels in eight of the provinces, and it failed to re-establish itself nationally, but made a convincing rebound in the Eastern Cape, where it overtook COPE to become the third-largest party. The increase was especially convincing in the King Sabata Dalindyebo region. However, this new growth had largely evaporated by the time of the 2016 local elections.

Thegeneral election of 2019 saw its support drop further. The UDM lost half of its seats both nationally and in the Eastern Cape, becoming the seventh-most supported party nationally, and fourth-most in the Eastern Cape. In the2021 South African municipal elections, party support declined even further, leaving the UDM as the twelfth-most supported party nationally.

Election	Party leader	Total votes	Share of vote	Seats	+/–	Government
1999	Bantu Holomisa	546,790	3.42%	14 / 400	New	in opposition
2004		355,717	2.30%	9 / 400	5	in opposition
2009		149,680	0.85%	4 / 400	5	in opposition
2014		184,636	1.00%	4 / 400	±0	in opposition
2019		78,030	0.45%	2 / 400	2	in opposition
2024		78,448	0.49%[a]	3 / 400	1	ANC–DA–IFP–PA–GOOD–PAC–VF+–UDM–RISE-ALJ coalition government

• List of political parties in South Africa

• United Democratic Movement (official site)
• Flag of the UDM

• 1997 establishments in South Africa
• Political parties established in 1997
• Social democratic parties in South Africa

• All articles with dead external links
• Articles with dead external links from July 2018
• Articles with permanently dead external links
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles needing additional references from June 2024
• All articles needing additional references
• Use dmy dates from April 2022