It's not over for Cope - Willie Madisha

4 August 2016

Pretoria – Congress of the People deputy president Willie Madisha said on Thursday that the party was far from dead.

Speaking from the floor of the national IEC operations centre, where political parties have gathered to watch the results from the 2016 municipal elections, he said: "We will be okay, this is only the beginning."

Cope, which was once South Africa's third largest political party, had only managed to secure one seat by Thursday afternoon. Madisha said this was not a concern.

"We have not thrown in the towel, we are going on and there is still a lot of counting to be done," he said.

Since coming into existence in 2008, Cope has been plagued by numerous court battles, which resulted in a poor showing in the 2014 national elections.

Madisha said the party had also learnt from some of its mistakes in the past.

"We started from a particular position, had some challenges, but we are still here, I would like to emphasise that we are still going on. We have been able to see those challenges, mistakes and the likes."

This article first appeared on News24, see here.