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Is South Africa’s COPE Political Establishment Collapsing?
13 June 2009
A searing critique of the state of COPE and drafted by a member of the party's own executive has described a party riven by divisions and undemocratic practices, leading ordinary members to abandon it and putting a question-mark over the fledgling party's future. The critcism - and appeal to "recapture the sprit of hope upon which COPE was founded" - is contained in a confidential memo drafted by Congress National Committee member Simon Grindrod, a copy of which is in possession of Independent Newspapers. It was distributed to COPE's leaders and members of its national working committee this week. The memorandum argues that the party "formed in December by members of the ANC in the wake of former president Thabo Mbeki's ousting" is "becoming just like the ANC in practice" and is losing members and grassroots support, where "division and indecision are taking their toll". Grindrod, COPE's national head of elections, warns that tensions between party leader Mosiuoa Lekota and first deputy president Mbhazima Shilowa, have led a situation giving rise to parallel structures in provinces and regions aligned either to Lekota or to Shilowa. "The perception continues that the president (Lekota) is being isolated by those supporting the deputy president (Shilowa). This scenario is rapidly becoming a carbon-copy of events in the ANC which led to Polokwane," Grindrod wrote. "The common belief is that COPE has become 'just like the ANC' in practice. Ordinary members, previously so enthusiastic and inspired by our message, are abandoning us and losing confidence in our ability to rectify clear cases of undemocratic or unacceptable behaviour." Grindrod wrote that trust in leadership structures was "being broken" as "inaction" continued, and that there "appears to be an intolerance of those who articulate any grievances or concerns". This is the same charge levelled against the ANC by Lekota when he served "divorce papers" on the party in October, accusing it of betraying its founding principles. This made it "extremely hard" to work on the ground to build support, Grindrod said, especially as the party was the focus of determined efforts by both the DA and the ANC to recruit its members. "We must act in unified and decisive fashion to rectify the situation," Grindrod said in the document, which he said was "designed to offer constructiuve proposals to assist the party we have all worked so hard to build". A general lack of communication and direction had fuelled a sense of despondency. "We are failing to maintain any sort of momentum going towards the local elections," the memo stated. "The honeymoon is over and, in the absence of a plan to continuously directand inspire our vital grassroots supporters, (they) will continue to simply drift away from us." He said that COPE was in "very real danger" of following the route of the UDM and ID if "difficult decisions" were not made immediately. Both parties began with a lot of promise but lost momentum and saw their support further eroded in the recent elections. Part of the problem, according to the document, is that members and the wider South African electorate were confused by its leadership, where Mvume Dandala, and not party leader Lekota, led the party in Parliament, while Shilowa was its chief whip. Ordinary members were asking, 'Who leads us?', Grindrod wrote. Another problem was that people had used interim structures - formed in haste so that it could contest the elections - to "lock themselves into leadership positions". There was also a lack of "structured communication", discipline and process within the organisation. While this was a symptom of the speed with which the party was formed, it had led to a potentially damaging situation where individuals were not accountable. Grindrod called for elective conferences to be convened urgently to deal with the problems. He also chided the party's public representatives for failing to make themselves available to structures and for not attending community meetings to listen to people on the ground. Grindrod "who defected to COPE from the ID" said the fact that 80 percent of COPE MPs were former ANC members, because it was formed as a splinter of the ruling party - did little to counter the charge that COPE was "ANC Lite". Initially hyped to make a significant dent in ANC support at the recent polls, COPE nevertheless managed to secure seven percent of the vote - unprecedented for a new party in South Africa. It is the third-biggest opposition party in Parliament, with 30 seats, and is the official opposition in four provinces. COPE MP and national spokesperson, Phillip Dexter, responded on Thursday by saying that while party leaders had seen the document, it first had to be discussed by them at a meeting on Monday of Cope's Congress Working Committee. As a result, the party could not yet respond. "Some of the issues might be right, but some of them are not true. We will discuss it on Monday and take it from there," he said.
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