Former anti-apartheid activist Allan Boesak says he is reconsidering his decision not to make himself available to be the Congress of the People’s (Cope) candidate for premier of the Western Cape.
He made the announcement on Wednesday following a four-hour meeting in Somerset West with members of Cope’s national and provincial leadership, and members of its grass-root structures.
Boesak (63) said he would make a final decision within the next 48 hours.
”I cannot simply discard the messages people bring from their communities,” he said.
Earlier this week, University of Stellenbosch vice-chancellor Russel Botman, who was seen as Cope’s first choice for the premiership, announced that he would not accept nomination.
Boesak told reporters he wrote a letter to Cope’s national leadership on February 4 explaining why he did not want his name to go onto the list of Cope nominees for the premier’s post.
The reasons included his commitment to a globalisation project at Stellenbosch, where he is an extraordinary professor, and the needs of his family.
However, over the past few weeks he had had meetings with representatives of communities from across the province, and had been subjected to highly emotional appeals.
”That’s the kind of pressure that is very telling on a person like myself, since my first instinct is always to respond to the needs of the people if these needs are so clearly articulated,” he said.
”The letter stands but I will go back and reconsider. I will speak with those I must speak to.”
Boesak said Cope had undertaken to ”look at certain issues again”, mostly issues of ”structure and strategy”.
These included campaign plans, how the party positioned itself, and ”how in practical terms, which is important for the Western Cape, we plan to demonstrate our commitment to non-racialism”.
Cope national executive member Philip Dexter, speaking at the same briefing, said despite media reports to the contrary, Cope had not yet decided on its candidate for the premiership.
There had been four nominees for the post, he said, but he was not privy to the names.
Boesak caused a stir when he made an unexpected appearance at Cope’s founding conference in Bloemfontein in December last year, after years of absence from active politics.
In a long and rousing speech, Boesak said he did not aspire to a prominent post in the new party, but would seek to serve South Africans in a way he could no longer do in good conscience in the African National Congress.
Boesak rose to prominence in the 1980s as a churchman and a leader of the anti-apartheid United Democratic Front. — Sapa