There can be little doubt that the Congress of the People is in trouble. Less than a year old, it is the official opposition in four provinces but now seems to be coming apart at the seams.
Lynda Odendaal, the party’s former second deputy, was quoted this as saying that she felt cheated and believed the party to be a fraud.
“I can’t lie to South Africa and I can’t lie to myself. I think people [who voted for Cope] will feel the way I do. I feel cheated,” she told Beeld.
Odendaal, who resigned on Tuesday, had also told the party’s first deputy president, Mbhazima Shilowa, that he was the problem in the organisation and accused him of manipulation, a charge which Shilowa has denied. Odendaal also said she believed that party president Mosiuoa Lekota had strong leadership qualities, but said his underlings were, in her view, “weak and opportunistic”.
The media has had a field day in reporting the party’s seeming implosion.
Simon Grindrod, the party’s head of elections, vented to the media this week, saying “a great fraud” had been perpetrated against the South African electorate and that he would no longer have any part of it.
“After eight months of genuine effort to further the work of the party as a member of the national executive, I am now convinced that very little appetite exists to accept, let alone rectify, the very serious challenges which face the party.”
Grindrod had a long list of woes, ranging from leadership battles between Lekota and Shilowa to party list manipulation and a culture of denialism.
Interestingly, he said he would not be resigning and would be keeping his membership card in his “back pocket”.
Cope’s leadership has closed ranks, or stuck their heads in the sand, depending on your point of view.
Lekota said in an interview with the Helen Suzman Foundation this week that after an election the “vibrancy dims somewhat” and that the “main actions have shifted from broad society back to the corridors of power”.
“Undoubtedly we will stumble along the way, but I work inside the party all the time now, and I’m convinced that we are doing very, very well. I’m very happy doing what I’m doing now because it’s much more relaxed and I can take time to reflect.”
If the party is to prove it does not have feet of clay it is going to have to move quickly to dispel doubts over its leadership.
| FULL SPEED AHEAD |
NOT SO FAST |
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Most-read stories
July 2 to July 8 2009
1. Casino ‘bribe’ plot thickens
Former ANC bigwig and business mogul Saki Macozoma has been dragged into the fallout from allegations that Free State Premier Ace Magashule solicited a R3-million bribe to approve a casino deal with the assistance of Durban businessman Vivian Reddy.
2. Mercenaries plan Madagascar ‘coup’
South African mercenaries have been recruited to reinstate deposed Malagasy president Marc Ravalomanana, security-sector sources have told the Mail & Guardian.
3. Hlophe’s flip-flopping backer
“Judge Hlophe has engaged in unconstitutional acts which provide adequate grounds for his removal from the Bench for ‘gross misconduct’ as defined under South Africa’s Constitution.”
4. Mud flies at Congress of the People
Simon Grindrod — the former head of the Congress of the People’s (Cope) election campaign — seems determined to air what he believes is the party’s dirty laundry in public.
5. The Hawks: A new era in crime-fighting
The police’s new unit to combat organised crime, the Hawks, won’t discriminate against Scorpions investigators who were involved in the corruption probe of President Jacob Zuma when it appoints its sleuths.
6. Cope’s youth members accuse leader of lies
Colleagues of the interim president of the Cope Youth Movement, Anele Mda, have accused her of lying to South Africans.
7. Odendaal parts ways with Cope
Congress of the People (Cope) second deputy president Lynda Odendaal on Tuesday resigned from both the party and Parliament.
8. Ditch the bishop and take a stand
The Congress of the People (Cope) is seriously ill. The challenges it faces are immense: leadership battles, organisational disarray, near-insolvency, a vow of silence on issues of policy and ideology, failure to distinguish political and administrative leadership, a fear of embracing democratic norms and, the foundation of it all, no clear strategic vision.
9. Navigating the corridors of power
South Africa is undergoing its most profound upheaval since the country’s transition to democracy in 1994.
10. Petros tipped for Selebi job
Western Cape police commissioner Mzwandile Petros is set to replace Jackie Selebi as South Africa’s police boss.