JOINT STATEMENT BY FIVE PROVINCIAL COPE BODIES AND TWO MOVEMENTS CALLS ON MEMBERS TO RALLY BEHING THE NEW LEADERSHIP COLLECTIVE (December 20 2010)
The leadership of the Congress of the People in five provinces, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, North West, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng notes with great displeasure the chaotic manner in which the national inaugural elective congress of the organisation was arranged by the outgoing COPE provisional leadership under the administration of former acting general-secretary, Deirdre Carter.
We salute the resilience of our delegates who, though subjected to most inhuman conditions designed to drive them away from the elective conference, persevered until the end to make sure they installed a leadership of their choice.
Once again when faced with the voice of democracy, former COPE president Lekota regretfully instructed his followers to walk away and abandoned the Congress as convened by the former acting general-secretary who ironically followed him. We are resolute that our structures on the ground only recognise the leadership that emerged at the properly convened event of our movement.
We are also certain that no court of law will endorse the antics of the 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 longed fallen for the seduction "African syndrome" where leaders refuse to vacate their post when their tenure is over.
These structures are in full support of the delegate's newly elected leadership and will rally behind it. We will rediscover our vision and outward focus now that this self-serving and destructive outgoing leadership is no longer there to distract and hinder us. We believe that the nation, indeed the whole world, is watching with expectation for COPE to outgrow its infancy and become the young, vibrant movement we have the potential to become.
Henceforth, we need to put friction and faction behind us. There is only one Cope! There's only one progressive party in South Africa. That is COPE under the leadership of President Mbhazima Shilowa. We must embrace even those who have realised that they fell prey to being used by a handful of people to achieve selfish goals.
Although it may seem as though the party has regressed to ordinary observers, nothing could be further from the truth - we have vibrant branches and members on the ground who are active community servants. It is these people you will now hear about as we work as a team to build this party to even greater heights. We still strive for unity and stand for a principled democratic rule that is based on the rule of law. We shall exact courtesy and reasonableness in the manner we conduct our business, and above all, we stand for the cause of freedom from need and equality for all.
A house divided against itself cannot prosper; it cannot be a home for all of those South Africans who are seeking a genuine alternative. This is why we in all these legitimate COPE structures cast off all notions of factions and will rise above such pettiness to answer the challenges of our people's needs.
We are here primarily to serve all South Africans who put their faith in us. We will give voice to the marginalised and powerless. The conditions that formed the Congress of the People remain. Hence we are confident that we shall forge forward even in greater strength.
We therefore dismiss with all the contempt it deserves the attempt to challenge the new leadership and we have rejected Lekota overtures to call his defunct Congress National Committee.
Statement issued by the respective secretaries of the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, North West, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng as well as the those of the youth and women's movements, December 22 2010
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