JOHANNESBURG (Sapa) - Cope president Mosiuoa Lekota could be removed by a unanimous vote of no confidence because he was not elected to the position, the High Court in Johannesburg heard on Friday.

"They [party leaders] were appointed by way of resolution, they can be removed by way of resolution," submitted said advocate Tim Bruinders SC, arguing for Lekota's fellow leader and rival Mbhazima Shilowa and Cope general secretary Charlotte Lobe.

Bruinders also argued that Cope's Congress National Committee (CNC) --it's leadership structure -- had no right to decide that the congress would be a policy and not an elective conference.

He submitted that the congress itself held more power than the CNC and that the delegates attending it were well within their rights to make the congress elective rather than policy.

Bruinders said the delegates also had the power to remove office-bearers.

He said that after Lekota obtained a court interdict to prevent elections taking place at the congress, he had not not returned to the congress, deciding himself not to participate further.

It was for this reason he was not given the right to defend himself when the vote of no confidence was taken in him.

The vote of no confidence was not a disciplinary situation where one should be given the right of reply, he told the court.

Earlier, Lekota's counsel Hilton Epstein SC argued that Cope's constitution did not provide for a vote of no confidence.

As a result, the party could not have taken a vote of no confidence in him to remove him as its president, he submitted.

He contended that delegates were not empowered to make the party's weekend congress elective, after the CNC decision that it be a policy congress.

He further submitted that, according to the party's constitution, any voting had to be by secret ballot.

Epstein told the court that Lekota should have been allowed to make representations on his behalf before the vote, but that this was not done.

At the congress a vote of no confidence was also taken in Phillip Dexter, the party's head of communications.

Lekota is seeking to have the vote against him overturned.

The case is the second involving Cope to be heard in the High Court in Johannesburg on Friday.

The court postponed until Tuesday an appeal by Shilowa to overturn the interdict granted on Saturday preventing the party from holding an election before September.

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