+ GMT Select Your Local Time London GMT Johannesburg Lagos Cairo Accra Mogadishu Abuja Cape Town Free Town Addis Ababa Austria Bahrain Bangladesh Australia Sydney Austria Bahrain Bangladesh Belgium Brazil East Brazil West Canada Toronto Canada Pacific China Beijing Cuba Cyprus Denmark Egypt Ethiopia Finland France Germany Ghana Greece Hon Kong Hungary India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kenya Korea (Rep. of) Kuwait Lebanon Liberia Libya Luxemburg Malaysia Mali Malta Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Mexico City Morocco Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria Norway Oman Pakistan Paraguay Philippines Poland Portugal Qatar Romania Russia Moscow Russia Vladivostok Saudi Arabia Senegal Sierra Leone Singapore South Africa Spain Sudan Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Trinidad And Tobago Tunisia Turkey United Arab Emirates United Kingdom USA Washington USA San Francisco USA New York USA Hawaii Venezuela Yemen Zaire Kinshasa Zaire Katanga Zambia Zimbabwe STO
[Pacific Sighting] See Makkah Clock
EsinIslam
Web
Site Explore
Exclusive Search
Broadcasters
Helping Shops
Home | Explore | Broadcasters | Media | Donations | About Us | Contact | Fatwa | Our Sheikh
Save
Plot To Remove COPE’s Lekota: Money Again At The Center Of South African Politics
14 June 2009
Congress of the People Gauteng on Sunday lashed out at accusations that there were moves to remove Terror Lekota as the party's leader. The provincial leadership "dismisses with contempt" media reports on divisions within the party after the leaking of an internal election document, Gauteng COPE spokesperson Lawrence Khoza said in a statement. Media reported that the elections document, compiled by COPE elections head Simon Grindrod, said the party must face "some hard truths" if it wanted to avoid collapse. It also alleged that rival leadership structures within the party were damaging its viability. "The Gauteng provincial leadership is disappointed at the unsubstantiated reports and wishes to stress that COPE had agreed in Bloemfontein that the current leadership will lead until the next elective conference. "The event is scheduled to take place in the next two years," said Khoza. COPE in financial, political morass COPE is under serious financial and political strain: there is doubt about the true number of its membership and leadership squabbles are taking their toll on the fledgling party. Tensions in the party have escalated to a point where young members are said to have started a campaign to oust the leadership. Party insiders said COPE was still battling financially, even though it got R8-million as part of allocations made to parties represented in legislatures. But it still owes suppliers for services rendered at its formation and during the elections. A company that prints pamphlets, T-shirts and other materials has threatened COPE with a legal action for an alleged R3m debt. And while the party has always maintained that it has up to 600 000 members, it has emerged that the figure may be highly inflated, as many of the claimed members have failed to pay the required R30 membership fee. Last week, Simon Grindrod, the party's elections chief and a member of its congress national committee, wrote a scathing memo describing a party falling part. He wrote that COPE was plagued by deep divisions that were driving ordinary members away. The Sunday Independent has established that problems can be traced to differences between Cope president Mosiuoa Lekota and his first deputy Mbhazima Shilowa. Lekota is apparently still bitter that he was not made the party's presidential candidate. Grindrod warned in his memo: "The leader of the party, the president, does not lead us in Parliament, while the first deputy president is the chief whip. Our presidential candidate (Mvume Dandala) officially leads the national parliamentary party. It is increasingly the case that ordinary members ask: who leads us?" He added that "this scenario is rapidly becoming a carbon copy of events in the ANC which led to Polokwane". Shilowa said such rumours were not new and had been dealt with by the party. He added that Grindrod's memo was inaccurate in some places. "(He) has got it completely wrong where he talks about the confusion among the people about Mosiuoa not being the parliamentary leader. For instance, everybody knows that Helen Zille is the DA leader and she is not in Parliament (Athol) Trollip leads the parliamentary caucus, but not the party," said Shilowa. COPE second deputy president Lynda Odendaal said the reports that the party was in financial trouble were "absolute nonsense". "All (COPE) MPs made a commitment to contribute money to the party every month… to cover basic costs," she said. COPE spokesperson Philip Dexter dismissed claims about the party's dysfunctionality and financial troubles as rubbish, saying none of the issues, including Grindrod's memo, had been raised in proper structures of the party.
EsinIslam.Com
Sign In Password