Congress of the People statement on the failure of the First National Congress, 15-16 December 2010.

It is with deep regret that the Congress of the People announces the failure of its inaugural national elective congress that was held in Tshwane over the last few days. A small minority of anti-democratic factionalists derailed the legitimate process of electing new leadership for the party.

Cope would like to go on record with the following:

1. The leadership of Cope remains intact. There is no truth to the claim that the leadership structure of the organization is constitutionally mandated to be dissolved after 2 years. There is no provision for this in the constitution of Cope. As such, the status quo of the Congress National Committee and the Congress Working Committee as the constitutionally mandated decision making structures of Cope remains as before.

2. To this end, a meeting of the Congress Working Committee was constituted after the shambolic events at Heartfelt Arena. In this meeting it was resolved that recommendations will be made to the CNC for the expulsion from Cope of those members of parliament, members of the CNC, the CWC, and ordinary members who willfully disrupted a democratic process, damaged the property of service providers, and brought the name of the party into disrepute.

3. There are reports that after the fracas, Mbhazima Shilowa chose to anoint himself as President of Cope by holding an election after the vast majority of delegates had left the arena. We would like to place on record that the elective congress was not underway. In fact it was never constituted and as such the decisions of Shilowa's splinter group has no legal standing whatsoever. For the Congress to be in session, it needs to be opened and credentials need to be presented and adopted. This did not occur, as accreditation and validation of delegates was willfully wrecked by Shilowa's supporters by use of orchestrated violence. It is important to note that if these reports are true, Shilowa and those who availed themselves for nomination for leadership positions have effectively left the party and formed an organization of their own. Whatever they choose to call it, it is not the Congress of the People.

We will engage with all of our structures with regard to reconvening an elective Congress. Given the limited resources of the organization, much of which has been squandered by Shilowa on his factional agendas including legal costs incurred by the party to defend against the frivolous charges brought by Shilowa and others, our structures must be engaged in determining where our priorities lie. This includes the pertinent question of whether we concentrate our resources on a local government election campaign.

There is no doubt that Cope members want, need and deserve a functional, constructive and democratically elected leadership. This is something that we are working towards with urgency.

Statement issued by Phillip Dexter, Congress of the People (L), December 18 2010

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