Congress of the People (Cope) co-leader Mbhazima Shilowa said the party needed to work “very hard” to establish branches and develop policies, in an interview on SAfm on Monday.
“… all of us, including them, need to go out there, work very hard to ensure that we establish branches where they are supposed to be,” he said in response to criticism from Cope’s youth movement on Sunday.
The youths accused the senior membership of lacking leadership and not implementing resolutions agreed at its inaugural conference in Bloemfontein.
Shilowa said there was a need to prepare for a policy conference, and develop policies that would set the party apart from others, besides electing leadership.
He said the biggest problem in the party was ensuring that the cross-membership of activists and new party members was infused with a new culture of branch activism, and not simply becoming branch members.
Cope Youth Movement national secretary Malusi Booi said in a statement that it no longer had confidence in the current leadership.
The movement said its mother party had a “dysfunctional” political and organisational structure.
“We are calling for the immediate dissolution of entire congress national committee. In its place a congress preparatory committee must be set with the sole mandate of taking us to conference by May 31,” said Booi.
The youth movement had gained the support of the Gauteng provincial general council.
The party stood in the 2009 national elections months after its inception, winning 30 seats in Parliament. It has since been plagued by reports of internal division, leadership squabbles and tribalism. — Sapa