South Africa’s youngest political party, the United Democratic Movement (UDM), is set to hold its first national conference and unveil its official policies this weekend.

After only a year of campaigning, a recent opinion poll indicates that the movement is on the verge of becoming South Africa’s third largest political party — behind the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and the crumbling official opposition, the National Party (NP).

And, says the head of the Department of Political Studies at the University of Port Elizabeth, Susan Booysen: “The movement is much better placed than its rivals to grow nationally.”

The UDM owes much of its support to the personal popularity of its two founders : former ANC leader Major-General Bantu Holomisa, and past NP secretary-general, Roelf Meyer. Holomisa was expelled from the ANC after he accused a Cabinet Minister of corruption. Meyer, tasked by the NP to form a broad political front to oppose the ANC, left the party after realising that “it had no future”.

The UDM however, does not have much to offer South Africa by way of new economic or social policies. It backs the government’s economic policies and harps on the country’s obvious social problems — without offering any real way of solving them. There also is no indication that its formal policies will be any more concrete than its vague discusssion documents.

What is clear is that the movement is determined to become a real player in South African politics by grabbing as many votes as it can — from whomever can deliver them. This has resulted in some unlikely political partners.

Holomisa has a sizable support in the Eastern Cape and a recent poll found him to be the third most popular political leader in the country. Meyer, on the other hand, is a drawcard for progressive Whites.

Last week, the movement elected Sifiso Nkabinde — a former ANC strongman and alleged warlord — as its provincial chairman in KwaZulu-Natal. He was also nominated for the position of UDM secretary-general. Last month, Nkabinde returned to his stronghold in the Kwazulu-Natal midlands after he was acquitted of multiple murder charges. His election is sure to secure the UDM a base in the province.

The movement is also actively canvassing support in the Northern and north-West provinces, home to many conservative Afrikaners and Black traditional leaders.

Meyer recently called on the White right-wing to join the movement. The UDM also is receiving a ready hearing from many relatively conservative Black civil servants who ran the former apartheid homelands and who feel threatened by the ANC government’s cutbacks in the civil service and are looking for a political home.

The ANC in South Africa’s economic heartland, Gauteng Province, is keeping a wary eye on the movement. People living in the province’s ever growing shack-lands have made clear their unhappiness with the ANC’s failure to deliver improved living standards.

It is perhaps ironic that the potential for this awkward alliance of disaffected parties and opportunistic splinter groups to become a major political force has been proven by the ANC. In many ways, the broad political platform the UDM is trying to nail together is much like the successful anti-apartheid fronts the ANC built to bring down the NP government.

The movement’s real challenge is whether it can hold itself together long enough for the obvious gaps among its present supporters to close. If they do, they may well become South Africa’s first real opposition party.