COPE ACCEPTS THE JUDGEMENT AND COMMITS TO ACT ACCORDINGLY

The Congress of the People was founded on the principles of the respect for the constitution. The judiciary has an important role to mediate the affairs of our country's citizens and sometimes the outcomes of judicial processes can be what citizens in whatever formation they find themselves may not like. COPE will be the first to respect the court rulings of our land even though we may believe them to be misguided - especially on matters we believe require nothing more than a political solution. In this regard we accept the court ruling as handed down in the South Gauteng High Court this morning and will do everything to comply with its directive.

COPE will study the judgement carefully in order to consider its options for a possible appeal. This does not detract from our respect for its findings. The General Secretary will over the weekend dispatch a communiqué to all members of COPE outlining the implications of this court ruling in relation to the outcomes of last weekend's National Congress.  In the mean time we call on all our members to exercise calm and restraint while awaiting direction from the Congress National Committee that will meet next week to pronounce itself on the latest developments affecting our movement. 

Finally we believe that at the end of the day COPE needs to find political solutions to its problems and that no COPE member will gain the confidence of the people by rushing to the courts to intervene no matter how aggrieved they may feel they are. While COPE respects its members' right to appeal to the courts history has shown that no political authority can be exercised in any other way other than the hard slog of winning the hearts and minds of ordinary people in the branches where the work of COPE to improve the lives of our people is happening every day.

Statement issued on behalf of COPE (S) by Onkgopotse JJ Tabane, June 6 2010

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