The Rise and Fall of COPE

After the 2009 elections, the Congress of the People became South Africa’s political darlings following their wondrous victory of 30 seats in the National Assembly. Cope, a splinter break-away party from the ruling-ANC, came about when the recall of former President Thabo Mbeki spurred senior leaders of the ANC to pull away in protest and call for a National Convention.

16 December 2008, the interim leadership of COPE was announced in Bloemfontein. From this, Mosioua Lekota was elected President, Mbazima Shilowa Deputy President, Lynda Odendaal 2^nd Deputy President and Charlotte Lobe as Secretary General. Although these appointments were officially announced, they were later to be challenged by numerous court interdicts.

In 22 January 2009, former president F. W. de Klerk said he believed the formation of COPE would change the political landscape of the country. Soon thereafter, the then presidential candidate for Cope, Mvume Dandala, said that he was chosen unanimously by COPE's national committee. There was a widespread comment on the fact that the party leader, Terror Lekota, wasn't chosen. Dandala said Cope did not have a policy that says its president will always be the presidential candidate.

3 March 2009, in a surprise twist, former deputy president Phum zile Mlambo-Ngcuka accepted nomination for Parliament by COPE and featured "prominently" on the party's list submitted to the IEC. The apparent about-turn was confirmed by COPE elections Chief Mlungisi Hlongwane at the IEC's Pretoria headquarters at the time. He also revealed that former ANC Limpopo premier Sello Moloto had also agreed to stand for COPE as its premier candidate in that province. Mlambo-Ngcuka was formally welcomed as a COPE member at the weekend, but made it clear she wanted to be an ordinary member and said she was not interested in returning to public office.

With such an interesting turn of events, this was the beginning of party squabbles and exits for most COPE members.

In March 2009, Mlungisi Hlongwane, the election organiser for COPE, announced his return to the ANC.

Following in July 2009, Lynda Odendaal resigned as second deputy president and from all party structures. Next was,  Simon Grindrod who also resigned as head of elections. The leaders cited internal leadership problems for their resignations.

September 2009, Cope youth leader Anele Mda was suspended after the party’s congress working committee (CWC) found her to be in contravention of "several organizational matters". This, after the CWC received a letter of complaint from deputy general secretary Deidre Carter against Mda, the convenor of the Cope Youth Movement.

February 2010, Former Cope deputy-president Lynda Odendaal announced she was joining the ANC.

Meanwhile, in May 2010, Cope President Mosioua Lekota said that the decision by "a select few" to choose the party leaders was the biggest blunder and had paralysed the party. In an impassioned statement, Lekota offered another "sincere" apology to South Africans for his public spats with his deputy, Mbhazima Shilowa, and said he was prepared to be sacrificed for the greater good of the party.

In just a few months of this party’s existence, quarrels, power struggles and splinters were the order of the day. Major members who had shipped many ANC followers with, had returned back to the ANC and some were just too embarrassed to go back. This, we can regard as the beginning of this party’s fall off.

In September 2010, the party suspended the current Deputy President of the party, Willie Madisha  pending a disciplinary inquiry into claims that that he grabbed the private parts of Cope Women's Movement secretary Nozipho Didiza-Ndlela. The party's national committee (CNC) said in a statement: "The allegations of sexual harassment made against a CNC member have been referred to a disciplinary committee to be finalised by the next CNC."

Cope was rocked by another sexual harassment scandal, with allegations levelled against Avhatakali Mulaudzi, the party’s ex-Limpopo secretary. Cope's provincial leadership discussed the matter on Sunday, 3 October and referred it to its national disciplinary committee. Insiders say a woman – a party member - laid a formal complaint with the party, alleging Mulaudzi “improperly touched her (breasts)” in 2009. He allegedly continued stalking the woman, going to her private home in Haenertsburg, outside Tzaneen, at night. She was not alone in her allegations.  A 22-year-old unemployed woman from Seshego, west of Polokwane, claimed Mulaudzi forcibly touched her breasts and her bottom in the street. At the time, she and her friend had gone to meet Mulaudzi, who promised to pay them for working as party agents during last year’s general election. The friend told The Star that Mulaudzi “All of a sudden, after buying us food, said he had feelings for me”. She said they had insisted on getting the money they had worked for, and that she wanted nothing more to do with him. The two women said they had reported the matter to Frans Ratau, the local party chairman, who confirmed the allegations. “Yes, it is true, the women reported the matter to me, and I took it to the provincial leadership,” he said. But the party’s provincial spokesman, Ike Kekana, said he wasn’t aware of the allegations.

Mulaudzi, who remains a member of COPE’s provincial executive committee, denied the claims. He also said he was not aware of the allegations. “If this is a criminal case, it must be reported to the police.”

But the then party’s provincial chairman, Sello Moloto, confirmed the allegations. “The allegations were made and we are dealing with them,” he said.

A party that once made sense to a number of South African voters was now seen in question of its credibility, moral fibre and readiness to head in SA politics.

In October 2010, Cope removed Shilowa, as Chief whip. This followed his submission of what the party said was fraudulent documents to parliament. Party president, Mosiuoa Lekota, said that Shilowa fraudulently declared to parliament that an auditor, Anton Louw, was appointed to audit the party's books in March 2010. In a letter to the party, Louw denied auditing the party's books. Lolo Mashiane, administrative whip at the time, was also removed for failing to cooperate with a KPMG forensic audit into the party's parliamentary books. Tozamile Botha was appointed as acting chief whip and Juli Killian - House whip - would act as administrative whip.

Shilowa’s removal came with devastating effects in the party; COPE was now to be divided as supporters of Shilowa believed he was unjustly treated and he was due for a decent position in Parliament . They believed, Lekota was not suitable to lead the party on his own. COPE now had two factions, Lekota supporters and Shilowa supporters. This particular incident led the party to many court battles in pursuit of power. Lekota wasn’t willing to barge and Shilowa also believed he was equally entitled to leadership.

The chaos in COPE continued as senior party members led by Shilowa introduced themselves as the new executive, saying they had taken over from party president Lekota. Shilowa, who was presented to the media as COPE president, said his task was to prepare the party for the coming local government elections. He brushed aside questions about his election to the top post, saying he had been legally elected. Flanked yesterday by his new executive - which was made up of Mluleki George as deputy president, Zale Madonsela as second deputy president and national treasurer Ebrahim Savat - Shilowa said his mission was to rebuild the party and stop the factional battles.

 

However,  In 18 October 2013, the South Gauteng High Court declared Mosioua Lekota the legitimate leader of his party. The ruling further confirmed that the aborted conference of 2010 was not correct and did not happen, let alone elect new leadership. A battle against impunity fraud and ill-discipline has been won. This high court ruling paves the way for COPE to hold the conference in a dignified manner.  

Political analyst and Wits University’s public and development management professor Susan Booysen said there was not much hope for COPE in 2014 elections after the damage done to the party’s image during the infighting.

"I really don’t think there is much hope. This is a fight between … not even two large elephants but two small elephants. This is five years down the drain. After they had done reasonably well, the time has been wasted. They are still sitting with policies from five years ago," Booysen said.

However, in January 2014, Mosiuoa Lekota was re-elected as COPE president during the party's first national congress held from 10 - 12 January 2014 at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg. COPE spokesman Johann Abrie said in a statement that over 700 delegates, representing COPE's provincial, youth and regional structures, voted to elect the party's leadership. No one ran against Lekota for the position of party president. Former Cosatu president Willie Madisha was elected deputy president, Lyndall Shope-Mafole was elected general secretary, Deidre Carter was elected deputy general secretary and Johnny Huang was elected party treasurer. COPE was ready for elections and adamant that they would do even better than the 2009 election.  

07 May 2014, election day,  a day that would determine the fate of COPE, the party’s downfall became evident amidst new participants- EFF and NFP -who did fairly well and overshadowed the party’s glory. After all votes were counted, a loud bang of the party’s fall from 30 seats to only 3 proved embarrassing. This was the fade out of a party that once held South African’s hopes high, the first splinter in 20-years of democracy, which would now be disregarded amongst other political powers because of its downfall.

Unfortunately, Lekota had promised to eat his own hat should the party not exceed the 2009 election. The day after elections, he was seen doing exactly that, a bite to downfall.