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 2nd 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.
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.
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