Members of the troubled Congress of the People (Cope) are worried as the party has been rocked by suspensions, expulsions and infighting among senior leaders ahead of its national conference and next year’s elections.
MEMBERS of the troubled Congress of the People (Cope) are worried as the party has been rocked by suspensions, expulsions and infighting among senior leaders ahead of its national conference and next year’s elections.
This was after members raised their concerns and pleaded for a peace settlement among the leaders.
Their plea came after deputy president Willie Madisha and elections secretary Mzwandile Hleko were expelled from the party.
Madisha and Hleko’s memberships were terminated on June 25.
Both Madisha and Hleko were members of the faction that was pushing party leader Mosiuoa Lekota to vacate his position last year. The two, including the party’s spokesperson, Dennis Bloem, even suspended Lekota for allegedly sowing divisions.
In return, Lekota and national chairperson Teboho Loate announced the suspension of the three.
During the media briefing on Tuesday, Gauteng chairperson Tom Mofokeng and City of Johannesburg speaker Colleen Makhubele announced that Bloem’s future would be finalised soon.
Raising their concerns, the Cope Johannesburg constituency said they were appalled by the continuation of suspensions, expulsions and personal vendettas perpetrated on senior leaders by junior members supported by some senior leaders.
“We, as the region, demand peace settlements and suspension of every matter referred to any court of law to allow diplomacy, internal political procedures and back to the constitutional resolution into all matters,” said interim general secretary Mokete Ntholeng.
Ntholeng said the region also wanted the expulsions of their elected leaders and suspensions to be replaced with peace negotiations, with the aim of bringing hope to the entire population at large.
In a letter written to the party’s leadership, Cope Western Cape said they were also concerned and appalled that while most political parties are using their time to organise and mobilise their members to prepare for a good outcome in the next year’s elections, the national leadership of Cope was beset with infighting by means of suspensions, expulsions and personal vendettas
Interim provincial chairperson Faldela Geduldt said: “We demand that the Cope national leaders and structures use all their time, resources and energy to ensure that every province has a successful provincial congress and that the national congress be held as soon as possible, and the infighting be stopped with immediate effect.”
Geduldt cautioned that a failure to heed a warning from the province could lead to catastrophic results in the elections.
The decision to expel Madisha and Hleko followed a protracted process of attempts to get the two to remain within the party’s constitutional prescripts. The process included formal correspondences, attempts at mediation and legal action to rein in their behaviour, which brought the party into disrepute.
Madisha, Hleko and Bloem have been accused of being rogue and acting in an unconstitutional manner, abusing funds and undermining the party’s leadership.
The three were also accused of taking unauthorised decisions including running a parallel structure and dissolving the party’s congress provincial committees without the approval of the congress national committee.
Madisha is currently consulting with his legal team and the party’s constitutional structures.
In a statement issued this week, Hleko said that after the consultation Madisha and the constitutional structures would address the media.
Meanwhile, some of the structures have vowed to fight the party’s leadership over the expulsion of Madisha and Hleko.
A group called the Gauteng provincial interim committee said the decision to remove Madisha and Hleko was utter nonsense and a joke.
“We want to make it clear and tell Mr Dictator Lekota and his syndicate that we have elected deputy president Madisha and comrade Hleko in a congress and nobody will remove them without our approval. It will never happen.”
The party’s chairperson in KwaZulu-Natal, Goodman Nzama, said the province demanded Lekota’s departure from the party.
“We firmly assert that President Lekota is the main one who is trying to destroy the party, together with his friends, and he must just leave the party. His actions and conduct are inconsistent with the principles of accountability, transparency and integrity that define our party,” said Nzama.
