JOINT STATEMENT BY FIVE PROVINCIAL COPE BODIES AND TWO MOVEMENTS CALLS ON MEMBERS TO RALLY BEHING THE NEW LEADERSHIP COLLECTIVE (December 20 2010)
The leadership of the Congress of the People in five provinces, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, North West, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng notes with great displeasure the chaotic manner in which the national inaugural elective congress of the organisation was arranged by the outgoing COPE provisional leadership under the administration of former acting general-secretary, Deirdre Carter.
We salute the resilience of our delegates who, though subjected to most inhuman conditions designed to drive them away from the elective conference, persevered until the end to make sure they installed a leadership of their choice.
Once again when faced with the voice of democracy, former COPE president Lekota regretfully instructed his followers to walk away and abandoned the Congress as convened by the former acting general-secretary who ironically followed him. We are resolute that our structures on the ground only recognise the leadership that emerged at the properly convened event of our movement.
We are also certain that no court of law will endorse the antics of the Lekota and his group. We are convinced that Lekota has now exposed himself beyond doubt to the South African public as a petty dictator in the style of Robert Mugabe, Mwai Kibaki and Laurent Gbagbo. He has longed fallen for the seduction "African syndrome" where leaders refuse to vacate their post when their tenure is over.
These structures are in full support of the delegate's newly elected leadership and will rally behind it. We will rediscover our vision and outward focus now that this self-serving and destructive outgoing leadership is no longer there to distract and hinder us. We believe that the nation, indeed the whole world, is watching with expectation for COPE to outgrow its infancy and become the young, vibrant movement we have the potential to become.