A Cope member identified by the party as having been offered a position, an exorbitant salary and a car by the ANC, has denied any knowledge of the matter.
Reverend Lekaba Tolo said on Wednesday he was only asked in passing by an unidentified ANC member why he had left the party.
”We did not talk about work or money. The person was just shocked that I had left the ANC and asked me why and said that I must go back,” he said.
Tolo said: ”I gave him my reasons why I left and also told him I was following what the ANC had said about how people who wanted to leave the ANC must do so.”
Tolo was one of four Cope members identified by the opposition party as having been offered positions, cash and cars to rejoin the ANC.
A second person identified himself as the a communications officer in the Western Cape and denied being approached by the ANC with any offer.
He, however, referred to Piketberg councillor Ray van Rooy as one of Cope’s members who had received an enticing offer.
But when Van Rooy was asked for comment he said he could only confirm the offer by Thursday.
The fourth Cope member could not be reached.
The Cope members were speaking after the ANC dismissed reports that it was trying to lure prominent Cope members back with high salaries and cars through an informally launched ”Operation Come Back Home”.
”It sounds like an April Fool’s joke,” said ANC spokesperson Jessie Duarte after being told about a news report on Talk Radio 702.
”The NEC [national executive committee] has [only] said that any person who wants to come back to the ANC is welcome to come home to the ANC, but will [have to] apply for membership through a branch as the ANC constitution requires,” she said.
However, 702 news insisted the story, which also featured interviews with some unidentified Cope members, was genuine.
Cope alleged in a statement that the ANC had ”inundated” its key members with offers of jobs, promises of cars and money.
The party said the ”secret operation”, the brainchild of ANC NEC member Jeff Radebe, was a desperate attempt by a ”panic stricken” ANC.
But Cope added that it was encouraged by the ”overwhelming rejection” of these advances by its members.
”The launch of the latest campaign follows the failure of the ANC’s strategy of parading scores of their own members and claiming they were defectors from Cope,” the party said.
It said this was another ”underhanded and morally bankrupt election tactic” by the ANC.
”We will not succumb to these sleazy tactics. This is one of the products of the ANC’s war room to rubbish the Cope campaign.” – Sapa