End of the road for Cope’s Anele Mda?

Bloemfontein could be the end of the road for Anele Mda as the leader of the Congress of the People youth wing.

Mda has been variously described as a breath of fresh air and a new hope for the South African youth, but not all young people in Cope want her to lead the new party’s youth wing.

The organisational overview report for Cope youth, one of a number of documents under discussion at the party’s conference in Bloemfontein, reveals that most of the youth wing’s members from across the country would prefer to have current national coordinator, Malusi Booi, as their leader.

The Mail & Guardian is in possession of a document prepared by Booi, which was due for consideration a session closed to the media.

Listing Mda’s perceived failures, the document complains of ”the continued negative publicity in the media and offensive public statements Mda made in attack of the ANC president [Jacob Zuma], leading the organisation to apologise to the ANC and its president”.

Mda told Cope supporters at a rally in the Eastern Cape that rape would be legalised should Zuma become the president of South Africa. The report questions Mda’s abilities to handle the challenges of managing attacks from the other youth formations and therefore her suitability as a leader.

Mda was ‘invited” by the convening structure of Cope in October to represent the youth and Booi was elected by the provinces to be the national coordinator. The two have since been working together and they have been tasked with reviving the energy of young people and establish a membership base across the country.

Part of the unhappiness about Mda’s leadership is an allegation that she ‘does not work within a collective and prefers to make unilateral decisions on policy and internal issues”, according to the document.

Military service
Topping the agenda of Cope youth wing concerns what the organisational report refers to as ‘mandatory military service”, wherein young people would serve in the South African National Defence Force ‘as part of an effort to empower young people in a broad range of skills, creating a sense of patriotism and nation building as well as addressing the issue of unemployment and discipline”.

It is still unclear what the Cope youth wing recommends as a strategy to improve education, but there is a plan to ‘partner with institutions that facilitate skills development to help address the challenge of skills deficit”.

The report calls for the youth wing to convene its own conference soon after the general elections next year, at which it would get an opportunity to elect its leadership.

Cope has attracted many young people and as part of their recruitment drive the party held car rallies, public car-wash events, braais and beauty contests, where young people were told about Cope activities.