Congress of the People (Cope) founder Mosiuoa Lekota has now exposed himself as a petty dictator, the leadership of five of the party’s provinces said on Monday.
The Cope leadership in five provinces — the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, North West, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng — as well as two party movements, youth and women, said in a joint statement they noted “with great displeasure the chaotic manner” in which the national inaugural elective congress of the organisation was arranged by the outgoing Cope provisional leadership.
“Once again, when faced with the voice of democracy, former Cope president Lekota regretfully instructed his followers to walk away and abandoned the Congress.”
The five provincial leaderships said they were resolute that Cope structures on the ground only recognised the leadership that emerged at the properly convened event of the movement.
“We are also certain that no court of law will endorse the antics of Lekota and his group.
“We are convinced that Lekota has now exposed himself beyond doubt to the South African public as a petty dictator in the style of Robert Mugabe, Mwai Kibaki and Laurent Gbagbo. He has long fallen for the ‘African syndrome’ where leaders refuse to vacate their post when their tenure is over.”
Cope national committee postponed
Earlier on Monday, radio news reported from the South African Broadcasting Corporation that Cope’s national committee meeting had been postponed.
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 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 Lekota and his first deputy president, Mbhazima Shilowa.
The leadership battle between the two has seen the party embroiled in mud-slinging matches and political contests since the formation of the African National Congress breakaway group in 2008. — Sapa