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ZIWAPHI • VOL 4 NO 11 • 21 - 27 May 2010

NELSPRUIT

By Sydney Masinga

COPE’s leaders in Mpumalanga are accused of inciting members not to attend the party’s inaugural national congress because they are scared they will not be re-elected during the event.

Provincial secretary and official spokesperson Buks Mahlangu insisted on Tuesday that Mpumalanga, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and Free State would not attend because of divisions in the party and irregularities in the preparations for the congress, which is scheduled for the end of May.

But a local party source accused Mahlangu and the other provinces of “inciting members to boycott the congress because they fear they will be ousted as leaders at the congress”.

“These guys have failed to build COPE in their provinces. Mahlangu has failed to launch branches in Mpumalanga. The province has only two branches, compared to the 600 in the Eastern Cape. This shows that he has failed as a leader. He knows very well that he will be ousted at the congress, so the best thing for him is to incite members to boycott it,” said the source.

He added that the party had recruited only 57 registered members under the current Mpumalanga leadership, which is headed by chairperson Ben Mokoena.

“Mahlangu submitted 18 branches for Mpumalanga, but when they were audited it was found that only the Nelspruit and White River branches were legitimate,” the source said.

Mahlangu, however, said the four provinces had decided not to attend because they felt that preparations leading up to it had been riddled with irregularities and that the party was too divided to have a succesful congress.

“How can we go to a national congress if we are divided and without honest audits of our membership? We call upon the congress working committee to postpone the congress because all provinces, except the Eastern Cape, had less than 50% of their branches accredited to attend. If this congress goes ahead, it will have serious repercussions for COPE,” Mahlangu said.

He added that financial challenges and the leadership battle between Mosiuoa Lekota and Mbhazima Shilowa would also hamper the staging of a successful congress.

The chairperson of COPE in Limpopo, Sello Moloto, said its local leadership had decided not to go because of the flawed auditing of branches that were expected to attend the congress.

“As provincial leadership we decided not to attend, but because we are a democratic party we decided that branches will meet on Saturday and take a final decision on whether to attend the congress or not,” said Moloto.

Free State spokesperson of COPE Sello Dithebe said the province wanted the congress postponed because the party needed to be united before it started.

“If our call for a postponement is not heeded, we will have no option but to follow in the footsteps of Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces and take a very painful but necessary decision of not participating in the national congress, which we believe is being rushed without regard for what will become of COPE in the aftermath of all that,” said Dithebe.

He said the “ambition to be elected and occupy positions” was the single most serious threat to the party’s future.

General secretary Charlotte Lobe said the congress would go ahead despite the calls for its postponement.

“The national committee as our highest decision-making body has taken a decision that the congress will continue, so it will continue. Those who are not going to congress are not COPE branches,” said Lobe.