Whatever our differences, be it leadership preferences, personality clashes and ideological differences, we all have something in common.

Our biggest challenge is to always remind ourselves of the common interests we have. The reality of the matter is that, we all love COPE, we may express that love for COPE differently, but we all love COPE.

We must correct each other tenderly, we must also correct each other harshly if needs be. If a Man expresses his love for his woman by beating her up, maybe the woman must put her behind bars for a few months to straighten him up.

Some Cope members might resort to vulgarism, vandalism, sexism, populism, racism etc earnestly trying to promote COPE. We must appreciate their eagerness to promote COPE, and applaud the common interest they have with us for promoting COPE; however we must never forget our founding principles and values.

Most Cope members and supporters cry very loudly to see Cope in the media, I appreciate this eagerness. As Cope members we must define as to, what type of media coverage we want. Do we as Cope want to be famous as an organization or do we want to be Notorious. Who is our market? Do we wish to attract the same voters as Julius Malema or do we need to attract the same voters as Desmond Tutu, or Nelson Mandela.

Cope voter perception or public perception must differ vastly with the current perception of JZ's ANC. We must be glued to principles and values and never be tempted by the devil's promise for Gold and Silver. We must remain rooted to our principles and values and become the governing party of the future. We must refuse blatantly the temptation to adopt mafia approach, with the eagerness to try and govern today.

Most youth politicians may be tempted to think that Julius Malema's reckless ranting is the source of ANC's hold on the masses. This is a dangerous assumption and a temptation to follow and benchmark youth politics on Malema will be tantamount to making him a king.

The opportunity is presenting itself for Cope to create a new identity to South African politics. Our founding values and principles where spot on. Through those principles and values we won the hearts of the intellectuals and the middle class. We might have not won all of their votes, but we won their hearts.

This moment calls for us to remind ourselves about our common goal, our founding values and principles, our love not only for Cope, but our love for our country.

We must not only build a brand for today, but we must be eager to build a lasting brand. A temptation to Govern overnight will make us to never govern.

We must remain an alternative that will bring change in South Africa and inspire hope to all South Africans. We must do everything in our power to retain a cream of sober minded South Africans that we attracted when the divorce papers were served to ANC.

Now, we need to take a principled stand never to elevate any leader above COPE, no matter how passionate we feel about them. We must be able to sacrifice a good leader in favor of Cope. If we see that elevating a particular leader will leave us with no party, that leader will have no party to lead, we must then abandon our craving to be king makers.

At the end of the day Cope must remain bigger than any other leader.

So, we must never be distracted from the business of the day, which is the business of building branches, formulating Cope policies and serving our people. A pre-occupation with the current challenges we are facing will take away the organization from its members. Members must partially ignore the current frustration of the top leaders, on whether they will leaders after conference, and focus squarely on establishing branches to then ensure that their authority is felt during the conference.

It is obvious that the current challenges cannot be ignored. However, we cannot spent all our time focused on this challenges, 80% of our time must be spent on building Cope and 20% on solving the challenges.

We need to spend more time selling COPE to the voter community. We must pay attention to the branches, regions and provinces and monitor their programs and help them with their challenges. Cope MP's must focus on defending and protecting the people of South Africa in parliament.

And I know very well that the lobbying in Cope has began and rightly so. Well some people may deny it, but is so clear and out there that it can no longer be denied.

Whenever you express a view you are immediately classed, so, you are a Lekota person! It has become very clear that, Cope is divided between DP Shilowa and President Lekota. That is fine and very well.

I must however warn those who have aspiration to see either leader lead Cope that, too much negative lobbying will ultimately damage the reputation of both leaders and ultimately none of the two leaders will be fit to lead Cope.

Whether you like it or not a perception on both our President and our DP is fatly building up.

So all in all:

1. Let us re-discover our common goals, values and principles.
2. Let us act based on a long term vision to rescue our country.
3. Let us build a clear alternative to the people of South Africa .
4. Let us behave in a manner that will retain our founding constituency, and know that, that is the majority of the voter community of the future.
5. Let's keep our eye on the ball, and that is coming with ways to serve our people better.
6. Let us lobby for the up and coming conferences and let that lobbying be done within the confines of our values and principles. We must know that, the character of an organization is not in the constitution, it is not in some policy document, the character of an organization reveals itself during times like this, it is during this times that, we demonstrate to the voter community our character and personality.
7. Let us act in ways that demonstrate that, we are all members of Cope and no one is the rightful member, we are all equal.
8. When we act, we must know that, our qualities as individual leaders are revealed, so, let us not sacrifice our integrity due to the lust for immediate attainment of power, we need to salvage our integrity for the long term prosperity of Cope.
9. Lets us use democracy positively and productively, let's not abuse the good idea of a democratic process and sugar coat is with creative autocracy.
10. At the end of the day our deeds will define us.

Let us avoid: 

1. Being in the media for the sake of being in the media. Let us use the media creatively to define our character.
2. Let's avoid attacking other members or other leaders, we need each other at all times and must protect our fellow member's image at all times.
3. Lets avoid and distance ourselves from members who promise us heaven and earth should we make them leaders, in so doing breaking the entire values and principles op Cope.
4. Let's avoid removing, suspending and disbanding cdes because they differ with us.
5. Let's avoid the temptation to be overnight celebrities at the expense of Cope.

When I joined Cope I did not join it for the short run, I joined it for the long run. I did not join Cope only for good times and celebrations; I joined Cope for all seasons. As Cope grows I will grow with it, I will not abandon it for anything, for I refuse to be just a passenger.

I therefore call on all COPE members who have lost interest in COPE to re-discover their love for COPE. I call on them to come and build COPE. It is understandable that some members thought that Cope was a party that would otherwise never have problems.

Sefu Sekgala is a member of COPE in Tshwane

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