Divisions in the Congress of the People (Cope) continue to deepen, with at least four provinces of the party’s youth movement set to oppose a controversial internal discussion document that calls for Cope’s national leadership to be disbanded.
Drawn up by the secretariat of the youth wing’s national steering committee, the document calls for an elective conference to be held by May this year, six months earlier than the December date proposed by the congress national committee.
Limpopo, the Eastern Cape, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal are set to oppose the document, which was circulated to provincial secretaries in preparation for its presentation at the congress national committee meeting early next month.
Hostile sources said it was a lobbying effort by backers of Cope’s deputy president, Mbhazima Shilowa.
In the document Cope youth blame the national leadership for rendering the party “virtually irrelevant in the public space” by failing to unite the organisation. But some youth leaders are not impressed.
Said national deputy chairperson of the Cope Youth Movement, Thabiso Teffo, who represents Limpopo on the steering committee: “Our province is not going to support that document. It is not the official document of the Cope Youth Movement.”
Teffo said the document was “factional” because it proposed that general secretary Charlotte Lobe head a forum of secretaries, called the “congress preparatory committee”, that would lead the party towards a policy platform and elective conference.
“It implies everyone is wrong, but the general secretary is the only person who is right and doing the job.”
Cope youth’s Eastern Cape secretary, Nqaba Bhanga, agreed: “The document says disband everybody, but leave the general secretary and a group of provincial secretaries who are actually part of Cope’s failure.”
Without naming them, Bhanga accused senior leaders of being behind the document. Bhanga said it was a programme for people who sought to use young people to advance their own ambitions.
“We cannot be pawns. We are sick and tired of being used for wrong things.”
For much of its inaugural year Cope was rocked by leadership tussles, in particular between president Mosiuoa Lekota and his deputy, Shilowa, for the presidency.
Party sources said the document represented a first move by the youth wing to steer the party in a new direction, following its dismal performance in Parliament and in communities.
Co-author of the document, national secretary Malusi Booi, defended it, saying its contents had been discussed at a steering committee meeting in Kimberley a day before the party’s first anniversary celebrations.
“In that meeting, we said some of the leaders do not inspire us. We have raised these things at congress national committee meetings, but were ignored.”
Booi acknowledged that some provinces would object. “They must agree or disagree with it. We cannot force people to support the document.”
The youth document charges that Cope is run by an “absentee landlord” because all elected top office bearers, except Lobe, insisted on being deployed to Parliament and provincial legislatures.
It demands that head of communications Phillip Dexter, national organiser Mluleki George, head of policy Smuts Ngonyama and national treasurer Hilda Ndude be recalled from Parliament because their absence lies at the heart of the “dysfunctional” head office.