The Deputy President once again calls the members of COPE, actual and fictional, to anarchy. He is right about one thing - the party is at a crossroads, but it is one with a road into the future, or a precipice, once we go over, there will be no future. How did it get to this point? In truth, he has led us to this point. Here are the reasons.
Of a Faction, Fiction and Fraud
As has been the tendency recently, the Congress of the People has been in the news for negative reasons. There is no way that having to discipline senior members of the party is something we can celebrate as a party. Similarly, dealing with the mismanagement of public funds by some of our leaders is a task nobody could relish. At the same time we cannot run away from our reality and our responsibilities as political leaders. COPE was formed to fight for clean government, against corruption and for accountability of political leaders. We must ensure these values are upheld in the party first of all.
Ever since COPE was formed, there have been certain individuals that formed a faction that has disrupted the efforts of genuine, democratic, COPE members to build the party. This faction has degenerated into a splinter group that has even recently threatened to break away from the party by holding its own "congress", funded by unknown sources. This factional activity has dogged the party, resulting in all the excesses that we have seen. The party must deal decisively with this faction if it is to be a credible party again.
The Faction
The origin of this problem in the party stems from the compromise and consensus of a leadership group that was agreed to at the founding congress in Bloemfontein. As the Deputy President of COPE has now admitted, he never accepted this compromise. He had appointed himself as the ‘volunteer in chief' of the party and interpreted this to mean that he should lead the party.
As a result, those who support him have worked determinedly to remove the incumbent President, by hook or by crook. The manner in which the presidential candidate in 2009 was chosen, was clearly a factional decision aimed at de-legitimising the President. Resources of the party and Parliament have been utilised by this faction for their own narrow purposes as the KPMG report now shows. For instance, some party staff aligned to this faction, particularly in the Western Cape have allegedly been paid allowances from the Parliamentary funds, while no such privilege has been extended to other provincial staff. Similarly, resources are alleged to have been misused in some of the provincial legislatures.
The Fiction
This faction has peddled certain fictions, mainly in the media, by running a parallel communications structure. Among these are the following; some leaders, those who do not support Shilowa for President are afraid of a Congress, they want to hand COPE over to the DA, the forensic audit is just a ploy to ‘get rid' of Shilowa and there are ‘parallel structures' being formed to counter ‘official' COPE structures. These are really just patent lies. What has lately irked this faction is that ever since the failed coup of St Georges in May where the efforts of a rented mob who tried to kick out the current leadership were thwarted, members have been taking back their organisation.
They have launched legitimate branches independently of factional regional and provincial structures who refuse to do so; they have begun to hold representative regional congresses and in the Northern Cape they have held the first legitimate provincial congress. The Gauteng and Western Cape Congresses were basically mass rallies of delegates who did not all represent legitimate branches-trial runs for St Georges. The Eastern Cape Congress was held without following the proper processes.
In the Northwest and KwaZulu-Natal and Youth Movement, members have acted against the failed interim leadership and the same sentiment is strong in the Women's Movement, where the interim leadership have launched few, if any structures. This action by members has frustrated the bureaucratic stranglehold this faction has held over some of the party structures. South Africans can now join COPE freely, elect their own leadership democratically and not be intimidated and bullied by a faction that still behaves in the worst manner, similar to elements in the corrupted ruling party.
Thankfully these factionalists have recently come out into the open. They have openly challenged the decisions taken in the legitimate structures of the party. Asking for proper delegates of branches to attend a congress, for accountability in terms of party funds and for discipline by leaders arises not from fear of democracy, but from the desire to ensure it is not undermined.
Incidentally, faced with a defeat on a vote in the CNC, these same "brave and democratic" men and women suddenly appealed for unity and no voting! As the majority of COPE leaders, including myself, said in response to the unrepresentative meeting at St Georges, ‘we will go to a democratic congress in terms of the COPE constitution, and where delegates represent branches and other democratically elected party structures'.
The majority of leaders of the party then decided not to participate in or recognise a mass rally of unelected individuals. The courts upheld this decision. The behaviour of the leaders of the faction has emboldened certain of the provincial, regional youth and women members of this splinter group to act in the same way. Hence they have met in an unconstitutional meeting on the 25th October 2010 and pronounced against the President and other leaders of the party. How different are these elements to those who ruined the ANC at Polokwane?
The Fraud
The membership database of the party is still not consolidated, manually or electronically, after nearly two years of the party operating. The organizing department has left this chaotic situation to reign, enabling the same faction to fabricate and inflate membership figures. Hence the ridiculous claims of membership in provinces such as the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape. The KPMG report shows that huge sums of Parliamentary funds have been badly managed, resulting in waste of funds and allowing for fraud and corruption in the party.
With St Georges and Thaba Nchu suddenly money was available for air-tickets, a hall, to pay the legal fees of Mbhazima Shilowa's attorneys-curious indeed, when none of it comes via the party's accounts. This constant activity of underhand dealings, ghost members, secret funders and the like, goes against everything democratic.
To be fair, even these members of the faction have every right to elect the leaders they wish, provided that is at a fair, democratic and representative Congress, not one in which they again try to again unleash a mob who claim to represent branches that do not exist. For this reason, the democratic leaders of the party have said the following;
- There must be a proper audit of membership so that representatives of elected branches and regions attend and vote at Congress. Interim leaders and members of ghost branches cannot be allowed to vote.
- There must be accountability for the resources of the party. No leader, the Deputy President included, can get away with avoiding his or her responsibility. As Chief Whip and Accounting Officer in Parliament, Shilowa must account for the money misused, even if he did not misuse it himself. He was responsible for putting systems in place to ensure this money was not misused. He failed to do so and misled Parliament and the party in this regard. The worst part is that he has sought to blame everybody from the Whips who served under him, to the CWC to KPMG, that is, everybody but himself.
Leaders of the party must be disciplined and cannot make statements that are untrue, unauthorized and designed to mislead the public and party members. Recently, the Deputy President has even referred to the president as being a witch! This from a person who wants to lead our party and one day even the country. It is a shame indeed.
This faction is now out in the open. It has peddled a fiction that it is the majority in the party. It has also been the source of the instances of possible fraud in the party. This faction openly supports the Deputy President in his bid to become the leader of COPE. Of course, he may stand for that position if he is nominated at a duly constituted Congress of the party, but he has a duty to ensure that this happens in a manner that builds the party.
The actions of this faction are designed to destroy the party if they cannot have their undemocratic way. The Deputy President must distance himself from this faction. If he does not, he runs the risk of being seen as the leader of a few vocal members in this splinter group and not as a leader of the party as a whole, should he be elected leader on 15 and 16 December 2010. We have failed as a party. We failed to deal with factionalism, with abuse of resources, with misleading the public. We are now acting against these and must be seen to do so decisively.
We will go to the December Congress, but we say;
Away with ghost members and branches!
Away with secret funders!
Away with factions and plotting in dark corners!
Let the branches decide-let the members have their say.
Phillip Dexter is COPE's head of communications. This article is written in his personal capacity.
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