An inebriated Sam Shilowa - former Premier of the richest Province in South Africa -- scuffling with the elderly and gentlemanly Thozamile Botha, who, later, shed tears, is an indelible impression from the aborted COPE Congress on 16 December 2010.
The sad, bitter and angry emotions causing those tears of frustration and disappointment, were shared by millions of South Africans who had wished COPE well. The astonishing political miracle of the emergence of COPE now lay in tatters. Can it rehabilitate itself or is COPE's failure destined to be more grist to the mill of the Afro-pessimists?
On 21 November 2008, I became a member of COPE. At the founding Bloemfontein Congress on the 16 December 2008, I was elected to the COPE National Committee (CNC). That thus far COPE has been a classic case of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, cannot be disputed, but being on the inside, looking out, one observes a different reality, not least the patience, commitment and, indeed, stoicism of its supporters. I saw and still see COPE as a vital and key contributor to our present and potentially to our future political development.
The disorganisation, disruption and manipulation that took place at COPE's aborted National Elective Congress, and, since the April 2009 General Election, within the CNC, has left me puzzled and questioning the quality of some of our black leaders in South Africa.
Why are so many black politicians, including some of our COPE leaders, unable to put basic non-political administrative processes into place and why are they prepared to contradict their propaganda, abandon their principles and values, cast ubuntu aside and deviously follow their own cynical self-interest and overweening ambition.
In that process they are prepared to damage and possibly destroy their organisation. It is a kind of political immolation or the wounded baboon pulling out its own innards. The PAC, AZAPO, now seemingly the IFP, Meshoe's ACDP and former politician Ziba Jiyane's NADECO all have had serious if not terminal problems. The ANC also has huge factional tensions. The endless replacement of Directors-General, is a further manifestation.