/ 20 December 2010

Cope national committee postponed

Cope National Committee Postponed

Congress of the People’s (Cope) national committee meeting has been postponed, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday.

The meeting was called at the party’s headquarters in Johannesburg on Monday to discuss a way forward following a violent elective conference last week that failed to elect new leadership.

“We were advised that there may well be a march on the head offices by people from the [Mbhazima] Shilowa breakaway faction, so in the light of the security risk it was agreed that we should meet today [Monday],” the Cope’s spokesperson Phillip Dexter said.

“We’re not sure when the meeting will reconvene because one of the problems is that it’s getting close to Christmas. We are either going to try and get it in the next few days, failing that, post-Christmas,” he said.

The party’s second attempt at holding an elective conference in 2010 was aborted after violence erupted between supporters of Mosiuoa Lekota and his first deputy president, Shilowa.

The leadership battle between the two has seen the party embroiled in mud-slinging matches and political contests since the formation of the ANC breakaway group in 2008. — Sapa