In the past few weeks COPE has lurched from one media, PR and organisational crisis to another. Leaders in the party have openly attacked one another, factionalism is widespread, financial mismanagement and possibly even corruption is now exposed and it seems to all observers that this is the end of the road. Not ANC LITE, but COPE ZERO, as one wag has put it! The fact that the party originated mainly because of discontent with the ruling party, and the ongoing and intense leadership struggle have had a negative effect on internal democracy and the legitimacy of the current leadership. The challenge for the leadership is to use this crisis to effect a catharsis, a cleansing or renewal of the party.
The so-called Acting President of COPE, Mbhazima Shilowa, has been rushing from one media appointment to another, trying to convince the public that all his machinations to become party leader are as a result of his popularity, his recognised leadership abilities and democratic choices made by members of the party. Like the history of the party as told officially, this is patently untrue. COPE was formed in a crisis and has in fact existed as a fragile coalition of different class forces and personal interests since its birth.
From the heady days of the November Convention, when different strands of political traditions were welded together, this coalition has been fractious at best. The coalition includes working class and poor people who have been let down by the ANC, petite-bourgeois individuals who were excluded by the Zuma tsunami from political office and South Africans fed up with White racism and narrow Africanism who genuinely embraced what seemed like a truly non-racial political formation. They all came together in Bloemfontein to elect a consensus leadership to try and get the party going.
From day one, the self-proclaimed volunteer-in-chief, Shilowa, felt he should have been King. Nothing wrong in that, but his dissatisfaction and impatience with not ruling revealed itself time and again to the detriment of unity. He has revealed that he has no patience to wait to be elected to office and instead has instigated a coup d'état, ironically not dissimilar to the one that removed Thabo Mbeki. Fellow coup plotter Mluleki George, who always felt that 'Shikota' should have been 'Shikotaleki', has been central to rigging the voters roll for the election, all in true ZANU-PF Mugabe style.
In all of this, the ordinary members are the losers, bewildered by the crass opportunism, the complete lack of democracy, the rigging of election lists, the secret choice of the Presidential Candidate for elections and now this attempted coup. The party the ordinary people hoped would be an antidote to the corruption of the liberation movement turns out to have corruption in it. Why are we so surprised? The plotting, factionalism, crass material interest and undemocratic culture that were inherited from the ruling party, were bound to have infected COPE as so many of the rotten eggs of the liberation movement came with the genuine activists who left the ANC, SACP and COSATU.
Fighting this self-interest and corruption is what this struggle is about, not Lekota or Shilowa. It's about democracy, transparency, accountability and legitimacy, versus narrow factionalism, cover-ups of financial shenanigans, authoritarian dictatorship and downright irresponsibility. The time has come for members of COPE to choose.
This crisis can be utilised to ensure that real branches, with paid-up, active members, take charge of the party and elect a leadership they want, not a leadership cooked up in a secret meeting held at a fancy restaurant in Sandton or the Waterfront. Attempts to silence, suspend, expel or intimidate the membership and leaders show that this party is too valuable to be left to the vagaries of some self-appointed political psychopaths who are only interested in power and money.
Those of us in the leadership who have compromised with this malevolent force must also take responsibility. We have accepted too easily that we let transgressions of the party's constitution and manifesto go unchallenged in the name of unity. This has emboldened those who have arrogated leadership to themselves, despite never being elected! These 'leaders' in the interim regional, provincial, women's, youth and students structures of COPE have the audacity to claim they represent the views of the people!
What must we as COPEers do to turn the party from ZERO to HERO? As has been agreed, but not implemented, there must be a process of launching branches and having these audited by an independent auditor, to ascertain who can vote at Congress in September. Regions and provinces must also hold elective Congresses, as must the Women's, Youth and Student Movements. if they want to participate in Congress. (Incidentally, we need to debate whether these so called sector structures are necessary in a modern political party.) There must be accountability for all actions that have led us to where we are; organisationally, financially and politically. Complete transparency is necessary-no more deals behind closed doors!
The Constitution and policy documents must be thoroughly debated in all COPE structures and in broader society-no more lip-service to members deciding! Let the real COPERS speak! We need reports on membership, parliamentary finance, all the unaudited bank accounts at regional and provincial level and above all we need to ensure that all the instances of alleged vote-rigging at branch, regional, provincial and national level are investigated. We can never defend democracy with an undemocratic party. We can never defeat corruption, with corrupt leaders. We can never rule legitimately with illegitimate structures.
Above all, we need brave leadership who will look each other in the eye, tell each other the truth to each other, no matter how unpalatable and accept the outcome of democratic processes. At the same time COPE needs to create a culture of robust debate that does not include physical violence and the purging of those with different views. We cannot defeat the ANC when some of our members behave as if they are in the ANC YL! Those who cannot abide this culture of honesty, transparency, accountability and democracy will slither back to their various political homes where they can try once again to realise their ambitions through nefarious means. The Shilowa Express is off the rails. We in COPE must not let them wreck the railway track to genuine freedom. We must rather just let the faulty carriages go their separate way.
Phillip Dexter is COPE (L) Head of Communications
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