Cope wants two layers of leadership, which will ensure that those with technical skills are involved in policy implementation, says the new party’s organisation report.
The Congress of the People is holding a conference in Bloemfontein and the report was tabled at a closed session.
A copy of the report was leaked to the Mail & Guardian.
In the report, general secretary Charlotte Lobe proposes two layers of leadership within the party. The first layer will be a political, elected layer, while she envisages another layer comprised of technically skilled young people.
”Our technical layer of leadership will ensure that all our proposals are feasible and the details required have been thoroughly investigated,” read the report.
The technical team will support the political leadership with costing, viability and the sustainability of policies.
”When Cope presents a solution to the public it would have been that as Cope we have done some background work. It would not be slogans but concretely give details on which our people can work on to build our country.”
Lobe said this structure would ensure that the leadership team was not comprised of only popular delegates, but also included those with technical know-how.
”This will also ensure that advancement and recognition within Cope is not limited to a branch executive committee or provincial executive committee position. It will ensure that our leaders are used in the areas of their strengths.
Lobe also referred in the report to a trend within the party which she termed ”gate-keeping”. A Cope leader explained to the M&G that this referred to tensions between Cope members who used to be branch chairpersons in the African National Congress, and as such, were insisting that Cope be based on a similar structure. Others, however, wished to break the mould.
”If you now want to start a branch in your workplace like FNB [First National Bank] you can do that. Branches don’t have to be limited to certain areas or streets or suburbs. But what [former ANC chairpersons] want is to keep branches as they were so that they can keep their positions,” said the source.
Although the party has decided that it will will choose leaders by consensus rather than election, the question of who will lead and who will follow plays itself out on all levels of the party.
”We also note that there are those of us who only confuse participation with leadership. In this regard, if one is not serving in any leadership structures this is misconstrued to mean exclusion. All Cope members should understand that being a member or leader means only serving, not status,” Lobe says in her report.
The provinces
In an analysis of the situation in the provinces, the ANC heartland Eastern Cape is leading the pack with 160 000 members and 439 branches. In this province the party has established offices and has two full-time staff members. Cope has a surprisingly low number of members in Gauteng, the party says. The report says the province has a potential to organise even more than its current 24 000 members due to the density of the population.
In the Western Cape Cope is struggling to ensure that all minority groups are represented in its structures and stands at 60 000 members. In Limpopo the party has 30 000 members and in Kwazulu-Natal there are 10 000 members.
Cope leaders in KZN claim the challenge faced by the province is the lack of African women, which is a result of intensified intimidation by the ANC in black communities.
In the North West the party is struggling to gain members because of parallel structures set up by Cope members who were previously members of the ANC and others who were members of the South African Civics Organisation (Sanco). The Northern Cape, with its 30 000 members, has not allocated positions to its leaders and is still under an interim leadership structure.
”This approach was adopted to avoid unnecessary tensions that may be caused by an element of entitlement by people who have been appointed into a portfolio.”
In the Free State Cope members are suffering from systematic intimidation, said Lobe. The province has 74 000 members. The membership tally presented to the conference is comprised of those who had paid their R30 membership fee.
The headquarters of the Congress of the People will be situated in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, and the party plans to open this office in January 2009.