So much for the "divorce papers" which Mosiuoa Lekota served on the ANC last year: the marriage has barely been annulled and already there is talk within COPE's ranks of renewing the vows.

Last week, COPE's presidential candidate, Reverend Mvume Dandala, said that his party would not rule out a coalition with the ANC.  His exact words were: "If the ANC were to commit itself to some of the values that we are going to put forward, particularly the need to overcome corruption in this country, we would not rule it out completely".

I have said from the outset that COPE is good for democracy because it helps to break the ANC monolith. And, while COPE is splitting the ANC, the DA is building the alternative. On this reading, COPE can play a positive role in South African politics.

But there is a conspiracy theory doing the rounds which suggests that COPE may actually help to entrench the ANC's dominance. It goes something like this:

The idea for the formation of COPE was mooted by ANC strategists who realised that the election of Jacob Zuma as President of the ANC would alienate a key section of the ANC's support base. The disaffected would include supporters of Thabo Mbeki and people who could not countenance supporting a presidential candidate with a cloud of corruption hanging over him.

Knowing that the ANC was likely to lose their support, COPE was formed (by the ANC) in a bid to find a home for disaffected former ANC voters. Once these voters had found this new home, they would be delivered back to the ANC in the form of an ANC/COPE coalition after the election. In other words, any votes lost by the ANC in the Mbeki/Zuma fallout would be recouped in this process. In this scenario, a vote for COPE would turn out to be a vote for Zuma.

I do not buy this conspiracy theory. Politicians, despite what some people might think, are not that Machiavellian. And the ANC does not have the capacity to execute such a strategy.  But I do believe there is a possibility that COPE may form a coalition with the ANC, even without it having been the product of an ANC grand plan. Reverend Dandala's statement about going into coalition lends credence to that belief, as does his general attitude towards the ANC.

Dandala is unwilling to confront or criticise the leadership of the ANC. In particular, he has no problem with the ANC fielding Jacob Zuma as its presidential candidate, despite the fact that he is an accused in an ongoing criminal trial involving 783 counts of corruption. Dandala has refused to comment on Zuma's suitability for the highest office, side-stepping the question by saying: "I would like to leave that to the people of South Africa to decide".

Dandala's approach appears calculated to leave the door open for a coalition with the ANC. It also explains why Dandala was nominated as COPE's presidential candidate and not its leader, Mosiuoa Lekota.

Given Lekota's bitter estrangement from the ruling clique in the ANC, COPE realises that he is the wrong man to take COPE into a coalition with the ANC. In the words of one analyst, "The non-confrontational Dandala is a more appropriate vehicle through which the party's moneymen and leadership networks can reach this self-serving goal".

The DA has always ruled out a coalition with the ANC because democracy can only be strengthened if there is an alternative to the ruling party. COPE has a duty to the electorate to state unambiguously its position on a post-election coalition with the ANC.

Voters have a right to know whether they are voting for an alternative to the ANC or simply a vehicle that will deliver their vote to the ANC.

My challenge to Dandala and the COPE leadership is this: Come out and tell the voting public where you stand. Will you go into a coalition with the ANC or not?

If COPE forms a coalition with the ANC it will betray every COPE voter who thought they were going to get an alternative to the ANC. This is what the Independent Democrats did when it went into a coalition with the ANC in the City of Cape Town. The voters never forgave them.

A viable opposition party must offer a clear alternative, rooted in a sound political philosophy and vision of the future.

There are disturbing signs that COPE and its leaders do not intend to build a real alternative to the ANC. COPE's policies are a cut-and-paste-job of the ruling party's. Its candidate selection process was undertaken by a small closed group. Like the ANC, COPE is willing to put convicted fraudsters on its lists. And last week, Mosiuoa Lekota refused to state that HIV causes AIDS, prevaricated on whether he is committed to fighting the disease, and misrepresented antiretrovirals as dangerous poisons.

At the moment, COPE is unfortunately beginning to look more and more like the ANC. It appears to have more or less the same flavour as the ANC. It is "Coke Light" to the ANC's "Coke Zero".

All of this underscores the point that voters should choose a party that presents a clear alternative to the ANC's closed, crony society - an alternative backed up by a comprehensive package of carefully researched and fully costed policy proposals that offer real solutions. They should choose a party big enough to take on the ANC; a party that will never undermine democracy by going into coalition with the ANC; a party whose commitment to fighting corruption matches words with deeds; and a party that has a solid track record of delivery in government. The DA is that party.

This article by Helen Zille, first appeared in SA Today, the weekly online newsletter of the leader of the Democratic Alliance, March 6 2009