ADDRESS BY COPE PRESIDENT MBHAZIMA SHILOWA TO NEW CONGRESS NATIONAL COMMITTE MEMBERS

Comrades

We are gathered here following the outcome of the elective congress held in Heartfelt, Tshwane.  This followed the aborted congress, which we had to adjourn in May following a court interdict obtained by Mr Lekota and Mr Dexter.  Despite attempts at sabotaging the congress including a walk out by Mr Lekota and some of his followers, delegates refused to be thwarted in their quest to ensure that democracy becomes an accepted norm in the Congress of the People.

Many of these delegates had spent days in the rain, without food and water let alone access to ablution facilities. As a party committed to upholding the dignity of South Africans, their access to water, and sanitation and food security - we should hang our heads in shame. We treated our delegates to the congress, especially women, with contempt.

Worst still, some of the delegates were injured and had to be hospitalized following unpleasant skirmishes at the venue. Some of the delegates from the Eastern Cape, Free State and Gauteng, among others, were kept outside the hall throughout the night of the 16th of December.   

We need to extend to all of them, and everyone that experienced the shambolic conference, our sincere and heartfelt apology. 

I have no doubt that the fortitude they demonstrated in pursuit of the renewal and shaping of their organisation, will never be vain.  When future generation of this great movement look back, they will honour them, as we also do, for standing firm in the quest for democracy in their own organizations despite the hardships that they had to face.

You are all aware that in spite of the scientific hindsight and experience of the glitches at the congress registrations in the Northern Cape, North West and Limpopo, the agency that was contracted was only given six hours, between 08h00 and 14h00 to register 2500 delegates. 

Furthermore, the registration venue was also booked until 14h00. Hundreds of illegitimate people from bogus parallel structures were bussed to the venue to stir trouble and cause disruptions at the venue. 

Comrades, we know there was an agenda by those who do not enjoy the support of the majority of COPE members to collapse the conference. Throughout the year, we begged them to subject themselves to internal democratic processes.

We exposed their malicious actions and delaying tactics to the country and forced them to reluctantly accept the December date. In every step of the way, we detected signs that measures were afoot to sabotage the congress.

Now that the congress is over, the hard work of rebuilding and uniting the organization must be intensified. This will not be an easy road but we stay the course regardless of the odds. 

We owe it to the millions of South Africans who gave us the mandate to establish COPE and supported us in our first participation in the elections in 2009. We have said it before and we will say it again: For the past two years, we have let them down. Let's go back to the nation, look at them in the eye and say: We are sorry.

We owe it to them to restore their pride in their organizations as well as be the first to say to South Africans:  we know that we have been in the news for all the wrong reasons; that some of you have lost hope in COPE, while others are plain angry at us; that we really express regret for the manner we have conducted our affairs, especially on being internally focused and leaving behind the voter and pledge to mend our ways.

Assembled here today, based on the will of our branches are men and women from all walks of life and of different age groups. We were not elected because we agree on all issues, but because the membership felt that together we can steady the ship from the stormy waters. 

It is not that other organizations do not have differences. It is the manner in which we have handled our differences, especially when it came to the choice of a combination of leadership.  As they say, the taste of the pudding is in the eating.  We must show through our leadership style that we are indeed on new path, that of unity, cohesion, putting members and voters first and focusing on policy issues and not on personalities.

Together we must build a collective leadership, which is concerned about the plight of South Africans that fosters a culture of open debate and vibrant democracy. Being a leadership made mainly of young people, we must reflect our commitment to the future rather than the past. We must accept that building COPE to become an alternative party of governance will be a hard slog and may take many years. 

We must not overstay our welcome and should instead see ourselves as called upon to rebuild the foundation and to hand over to others to complete the building of the structure. 

The National Office Bearers will today table a proposed programme of action to take the organization forward.  Over the next few months we must be in a position to articulate a distinct COPE vision to which we are calling on South African to subscribe to. Such a vision must be based on the needs of our country rather than on our own egos. It must talk to challenges of poverty, unemployment and under development in our country. 

It must talk to quality of health, education and social and economic infrastructure among other things.

Over the next few weeks we should visit all the provinces to meet with structures at a provincial, regional and branch level.  We are not going there to dictate how the organization should forge ahead, but to listen to our members outline how they see us building the party, fostering unity and cohesion, rebuilding structures and reintegrating those who for one reason or another may feel marginalized and left out. 

Our message must be clear: everyone is welcome regardless of the views they held en route to the congress.  Our assurance that there shall be no purges must be seen in practice and not only in words.  We must make bold that no changes shall be made in the various legislatures unless the needs dictates and without a due process of evaluation.

This must include identifying those who may need to move to the head office and provinces to strengthen our operations. We cannot afford a situation where all the leadership is based in parliament and legislatures with no one willing to be based at our offices. 

This organization must never about individual desires. COPE must never be and will never be about the perks of public office. Our movement must be about serving our people.

At the May congress we spoke about COPE rising from the bottom. We must now elaborate on this concept and we forge ahead. The adage: ‘Amandla asemasebeni' should not just be about them electing leadership of their choice but of them directing the course of the party.

It is them who daily bear the brunt of our actions at a national level, face ridicule owing to our misdemeanors, sometimes without resolute responses because they too would be baffled by our actions and pronouncements.

Let us restore their faith in the leadership of the organization and pride as members of our movement. Let us conduct ourselves with honour and dignity.

Furthermore, we must move with speed in modernising this movement so that it becomes a lean, mean and professional outfit. We must re-engineer our backroom so that we as politicians are freed to fully interact with our people.

We are aware that only a handful of our members have received their membership cards and that there is a huge outcry for membership cards to be made available. We must, as the CNC, agree on a period by which all members should have received their membership cards using the recent audit.

We are aware that based on action by some of us at various levels; there are calls for disciplinary actions.  Important as this is, it is not a solution to political problems. Our problems are political and must therefore be tackled politically. Ours must be to win the ground politically and show members and the public that we have their interest at heart and not positions. 

Disciplinary actions must be a last resort and not the first response to a problem.  It is our duty to show those who hold a different viewpoint why ours is correct.  We must however also be open to persuasion to another viewpoint.  A re beng baetapele, e seng baeta ka pele, to use a Sepedi saying.

Part of building and strengthening the organization must be about building strong Women, Youth and Student Movements that are properly launched at all levels. These movements are necessary in order to mobilize and lead campaigns amongst their constituencies.

They are not structures to be deployed for political battles by the CNC.  Consequently, we must outline in the immediate period a programme of action to fully launch these structures as well as resource them to engage in campaigns to improve the lives of all South Africans especially the poor and marginalized.  We must change the current situation where there are no resources for them to hold meetings let alone run any campaigns. 

We know that money does not grow on trees and that until COPE is stabilized resources will be hard to come by, but efforts must be made by both national and provinces.

Where CNC members are assigned to assist these movements, they must work with them and not take over the running of the structures. These structures too must be allowed to rise from the bottom. They too should strive to foster unity and cohesion as well as reach out to others who are outside of the Congress of the People. 

With local government campaign now in full swing, we must hear their voice not just mobilizing their constituencies to vote, but advocating their views as well.  Of course, we expect them to also play a role in the building of COPE. After our entire base reflect their constituencies.

We are aware that in a number of provinces notably the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal, parallel illegitimate structures have been set up, disgruntled individuals now purport to be structures, and the youth and student movements also have replicas structures.

We must make it very clear that there is no room for illegitimate simulation structures. Where there are problems of exclusion, gate keeping as is often alleged, these must be dealt with organizationally. 

We know as a matter of fact that formation of these structures have nothing to do with these alleged stated goals, but were aimed at bolstering the numbers going to congress as well as laying the basis for the contemplated split.

Last year the government released a discussion on the New Growth Path.  Cope needs to engage in this discussion identifying areas of weakness as well areas that need to be strengthened.  In a country with unacceptable levels of poverty, unemployment and under development, we must support the ideals of job creation, poverty reduction and ultimately eradication and provision of social and economic infrastructure. 

We need to identify growth sectors that should be supported by the state as well as areas requiring regulation.  Ours must be about supporting the distinct roles of the public, private and cooperative sectors where appropriate.

For any economy to grow, education and skills are extremely key.  We need to support areas in the NGP that takes our country to achieve quality education, access to tertiary institutions and FET colleges as well as development of skills for boilermakers, welders, fitters and turners, spinners, etc.  We are not about opposing everything that the government proposes or does, but strengthening them and articulating alternatives where necessary.

Two days ago, the IEC launched a programme of awareness and voter registration.  We must put shoulder to the yoke not just to garner support but also to ensure that all South Africans register to vote and go out to cast their vote. 

We must however accept that we have yet to move from the starting blocks in so far as our campaign is concerned and that we are way behind having spent time focused internally instead of at the voters and their challenges.

We need as a matter of urgency to finilise a programme to nominate candidates, representatives to the different liaison structures, broad thrust of our manifesto to guide provincial and local campaigns and theme.

Furthermore, we should bear in mind that these are local elections, based on local issues. We must therefore focus on issues of local economies, electricity, water, sanitation, social and economic infrastructure, local roads, local clinics, etc. 

A lot has been said about how we may fair in the next local government elections based on our internal issues.  Without taking away the concerns, how we fair will depend on how strong our organization is in each ward and the leadership and candidates we will provide.

The role of communities in identifying candidates will therefore become very imperative. Communities are more likely to vote for a COPE candidate that they were involved in nominating than the one that will be imposed on them by our structures.

We must also make it clear that we intend to contest elections on our own and not in coalition with any political party. This does not mean that we may not consider working with other parties in order to govern in certain municipalities. 

One of the issues we have to deal with is the relationship between the party and its public representatives. This is not about who accounts to whom as this is an established fact, but more about how do we strengthen our working relationship and development and articulation of policies in the various legislatures.

A coherent COPE will be in a better position to articulate coherent positions in legislatures, hence the need for a strategy session that involves all public representatives, the CNC, representatives of provinces and the movements. 

Last year the people of Cote d'Ivore went to the polls to elect a new President. Presidential elections were held in two rounds.  In the second round President Laurent Gbagbo faced opposition leader Alassane Ouattara.

On 2 December 2010, the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) released provisional results showing that Alassane Ouattara had won the election in the second round with 54% of the vote. The President of the Constitutional Court immediately declared that the results were invalid, however. 

To date, Laurent Gbagbo refuses to vacate office despite pressure from the international world led by the African Union.  The Congress of the people should join millions world wide in calling on him to do the honorable thing: hand over power to Allassane Quattara who was democratically elected by the people of Cote d'Ivore. 

It is time that the African Union takes a stand and rejects the new trend where those who lose an election, seek to stay in power through forced power sharing. 

As we meet here today, millions of South Sudanese are voting in an independence referendum. The referendum was promised in a 2005 peace deal ending a civil war, which has raged on, and off since 1955The President of Sudan has pledged to honour the outcome, something we should applaud.

There are many more elections that are scheduled to take place in Africa including countries such as Zimbabwe, Egypt, Nigeria, Cameron, Chad, DRC, Gabon, Uganda, Zambia and South Africa.  It is important that all of these elections are held under conditions that are free and fair with citizens allowed to democratically choose their government and public representatives with any fear. 

The role of the media, international observers and civil society in the respective countries are crucial to ensuring transparency. 

COPE needs to develop a coherent international policy, establish partnership with parties with similar goals and objectives and participate actively in international issues.  We should not establish relationship with parties simply because they are in opposition in their countries even as our political ideologies may differ.  Ours must be a principled relationship and opportunistic.

Recently, a lunatic fringe has circulated a petition calling for the removal of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Judge Richard Goldstone and Professor Kader Asmal from their positions in the Johannesburg and Cape Town holocaust centres.  This we should oppose more so since the aim is to silent their criticism of Israel, where they think its actions are wrong and violates human rights. 

Fortunately the Rabi, Mr Goldstein has disassociated himself and the federation against the petition. 

In conclusion, I want to return to the issue of how COPE can regain lost ground.  It will be by:

• Consolidating the base. 
• Building unity and cohesion.
• Leadership being on the ground, working with members and communities and not merely attending CNC meetings. 
• Responding to the needs of communities by local leaders and public representatives. 
• A public apology to South Africans for our activities and behaviour.
• Commitment to mend our ways
• Focus on issues in the continent especially relating to democracy, human rights and freedom of the press.
• Candidates for local government must be people committed to serve the people and not have dubious character or corrupt.

Let us go back comrades to demystify the confusion that is caused by those who refuse to accept change. You are the legitimate leaders of our people - congratulations and wish you well in servicing the interests of our people, our organization and the voters.

Ngawabantu!

Issued by the Sipho Ngwema, COPE (S), January 14 2011

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