"Get the basics right" was the refrain running through the newly launched UDM manifesto by the party president, ahead of municipal elections in May.

"A UDM municipal council will endeavour to integrate the infrastructure of the rural communities to be on par with the country's developed areas," Bantu Holomisa said in a speech prepared for delivery in Mthatha on Saturday.

In the speech, Holomisa said unemployment would be tackled by conducting a skills audit and filling vacancies with unemployed graduates and the youth.

The party would also get a basic like municipal billing right by "ensuring that there is proper administration, financial management at municipalities, properties are valued correctly and no errors occur with the billing system".

This after the recent billing crisis in Gauteng, specifically the City of Johannesburg.

A UDM council would get "the basics right" by rooting out corruption and paying its bills on time.

Holomisa promised an "open-door" policy to ensure continuous exchange of communication and information between UDM councillors and the community.

In his speech, Holomisa criticised the African National Congress (ANC), frequently comparing the status quo to apartheid South Africa.

He also said that the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) had failed to intervene in the SABC's "unfair" granting preferential coverage of ANC events.

"The old National Party applied the same tactics of manipulating state controlled media..."