Money is said to be the driving force behind Congress of the People (Cope) president Mosiuoa Lekota’s sudden decision to join the party in Parliament, after he previously announced that he would remain at the party’s headquarters.
Cope had expected to take more MPs to Parliament, but it has been left with a relatively raw group and some of the party’s leaders said Lekota’s experience is needed. Other party insiders claimed Cope’s financial position is also an issue.
Since last week’s election, the party has blamed its poor poll performance on financial constraints. Officials said it will not be able to afford the salary Lekota will need if he continues to be based at Cope’s headquarters.
Serving on the opposition benches will be a strange experience for Lekota, who previously sat on the ANC’s front benches as defence minister.
The staff at Cope’s headquarters will be led by general secretary Charlotte Lobe and her deputy, Deirdre Carter.
Some insiders said the party’s money troubles have partly been addressed by the fact that it will have 30 paid MPs in the National Assembly and representatives in all provincial legislatures, which will also require paid administrative support.
”We will now have offices and staff and people’s salaries will be paid, so that will ease the burden,” a national Cope leader said.
Cope will swap its Illovo offices for new premises in the Johannesburg city centre in the next two months.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the party’s 7.4% showing in last week’s poll, even those who opposed Lekota’s leadership now concede that appointing Mvume Dandala as presidential candidate was a mistake that cost the party a significant number of votes.
They also agreed that the leadership battle which led to Dandala’s appointment as presidential candidate did the party no favours.
”The confusion was just too much. We learned that South African politics are not at a stage where voters distinguish between a presidential candidate and the party president,” a senior Cope leader told the Mail & Guardian.
The party is also struggling to manage infighting around the list processes, with some leaders saying opportunists are trying to force their way into Parliament on a Cope ticket.
”You don’t know such things when people join — they say they join for moral reasons,” said one leader.
”Now you find out they didn’t have a job and joined Cope to see what they could get.”
The party intends to divide its parliamentary team into different constituencies in a move to build the Cope brand and prepare for the next round of elections.
A meeting of the national leadership is to be convened next week to chart the party’s way forward. Topping the agenda will be the planning of an elective conference. Cope chose its leaders by consensus, rather than election, at its inaugural congress in Bloemfontein in December last year.
”The reason we did it this way is that we didn’t have branches. Now we expect all structures to have their own conferences so that we can have an elective conference in March or April 2010,” Lobe said.
Cope will also focus on preparations for the 2011 municipal elections, which the party hopes to use to build support and momentum for national elections three years later.
The leadership contest in the party looks set to hot up as the elective conference approaches, with former Gauteng premier and Cope’s first deputy president Mbhazima Shilowa expected to stand against Lekota for the presidency.