/ 29 May 2010

Split looms at Cope conference

Split Looms At Cope Conference

The Cope congress turned violent on Saturday afternoon after party leaders supporting current president Mosiuoa Lekota served a notice of a court interdict on the pro-Shilowa group.

A Johannesburg High Court Judge on Saturday issued an interdict preventing the Cope electoral conference from going forward.

Judge Motsamai Makume on Saturday ruled that the election was in contravention of a resolution by the congress national committee earlier this week.

“The first respondent is interdicted from conducting elections,” said Makume.

“The first respondent is hereby ordered to defer elections for four months,” he said. The first respondent was the party itself.

Deputy general secretary Deidre Carter, a Lekota supporter, handed over the papers to Shilowa in the middle of proceedings, an action that sparked a chair-throwing match between the rival camps. At least one female delegate was injured and needed medical attention. The incident occurred while general secretary Charlotte Lobe was delivering her report on the organisation.

Many of Lekota’s supporters protested outside the St George’s Hotel in Irene, outside Pretoria, chanting slogans encouraging violence such as Makuliwe, an Nguni song declaring war.

The media was barred from entering the venue during the scuffle as pro-Shilowa leaders were trying to restore calm.

Outside, Lekota supporters vowed to fight for the organisation they claimed was being stolen by Shilowa and his supporters. They also provoked the police who were blocking the entrance to the venue, singing Thiba ka moo, re bolae ntja tsena, a Sotho song meaning they would kill their opponents.

Maria Mabotja, a Lekota supporting delegate from Limpopo, told journalists they would continue being violent “for Terror’s sake”.

“This will be the Cope that Terror wanted, with the moral fibre that he wanted,” said Mabotja. She and other delegates who were denied access to the conference said they were being treated like animals by leaders supporting Shilowa because they had been refused food.

Pacsy Magwaca, a delegate from the North West, said despite the hunger and the shoddy treatment they were subjected to when they were forced to sleep outside the conference centre in their buses, they were prepared to fight on.

‘Worst-case scenario’
A plan of action for a “worst-case scenario” penned by Cope’s Tshwane chairperson Andries Keun may be realised, he said in an interview on Saturday.

Keun said a split in the party may actually happen should the current impasse fail to be resolved.

“We may have no choice … We had an agreement,” he said, explaining that the congress national committee (CNC) earlier unanimously agreed that the conference would be a policy conference and not an elective one.

“They are trying to hijack the party.”

Keun said the faction aligned to Lekota was using the courts as “a last resort” to prevent a possible split.

He said he believed the Shilowa faction had intended to proceed with an elective conference all along despite a CNC resolution that it should be a policy conference.

“I believe they had a plan all along, that was the only reason they agreed to the policy conference.”

Keun also believed Shilowa would take the party back to the ANC should a split occur.

“I am the opinion that they will join the ANC before the local government elections or in the next two to three,” he said. – Sapa