Congress of the People president Mosiuoa Lekota and his supporters abandoned the party’s national congress at the St George’s Hotel in Centurion outside Pretoria on Saturday evening. But not before the conference, dominated by supporters of his deputy Mbhazima Shilowa, passed a motion of no confidence in him and the party’s national spokesperson Phillip Dexter.
The two were also expelled from their positions.
Shilowa is now Cope’s acting president until the party holds leadership elections.
Earlier, Shilowa told the media that the congress would continue with business, but would not elect new leaders. This comes the South Gauteng High Court granted an interdict to Lekota and his supporters to prevent the gathering from holding elections. He added that Lekota’s fate was in the hands of Cope members. ‘It is clear that the president of the party has taken his own party to court. The membership needs to decide what needs to happen. It is their organisation, it is their congress, it is them who need to decide what is going to happen”.
Lekota unfazed
Lekota was unfazed when journalists asked him about a motion of no confidence. “This is just a policy conference, it cannot pass a motion of no confidence on me. It does not bother me,” he said. He insisted that he was still Cope president.
Shilowa hit back at Cope members who took political battles to court. “I would never take the organisation to court. If I was aggrieved I would find a way of addressing my unhappiness within the structures of the party”. He also criticised Lekota for creating factions.
“There is only one faction in Cope, the Lekota faction. I have never come out of a meeting and said ‘me and the six others have decided’. I always work within the structures of Cope”.
While the conference was under way, Lekota was addressing about 500 of his jubilant supporters in another hall at the hotel and advised them to abandon the conference. He was flanked by his staunch supporters who are members of the party’s national leadership including Dexter, Smuts Ngonyama, Thozamile Botha, Dennis Bloem and Nosimo Balindlela. “We must begin to collect our things and go,” he said after explaining what the court victory meant for them and the party. “We have only made sure that the decision taken by the
CNC on Wednesday is implemented”. He was referring to the conversion of a national congress into a policy conference. The decision was however rejected by delegates on Friday night, who insisted on electing new leaders.
Leaders from different provinces who support Lekota all addressed the president’s gathering, praising him for being “an honest leader” while accusing Shilowa of holding an illegitimate congress.
Thabiso Teffo, a Limpopo pro-Lekota youth leader pledged that the young people would defend Lekota. “We will fight against these unscrupulous people. The people that we defeated today are the same people who misled [former SA president] Thabo Mbeki in Polokwane”.
‘Consensus leadership’
Nominations for the top 12 leadership positions were already complete when a decision was made to postpone elections, with none of the leaders supporting Lekota making it on to the list.
Cope will now continue operating with the “consensus leadership” appointed at its inaugural conference in Bloemfontein, at least for the next four months.
The conference will make its resolutions on Sunday.