A certain Bishop is intriguing in more ways than one, for instance saw it when some disgruntled people broke away from the ANC after the Polokwane conference and formed a splinter organization. This bishop said it was a positive development and yet the people who broke away from the ANC told the country and the world that they were leaving the ANC because they firmly believed that democracy was dead in the ANC.
Furthermore, they claimed that the very Constitution was in jeopardy. Why did they say this? They were furious that a leader to whose continuance in power their fortunes were linked had been removed. It was all done democratically mind you. Delegates of the ANC from the entire country had voted, and the vote went 60% in favour of the current president, and 40% voted in favour of the former president, Thabo Mbeki. Yet when these people left the ANC, they claimed they did so because democracy was dead in the ANC. Was the vote in Polokwane not a democratic process?
After leaving the ANC to form what has since become a resounding political comedy, COPE, the leaders of this organization have never held an elective conference, where their supporters would have been given a chance to say who they want to lead them, between Mosiuoa Lekota or Sam Shilowa.
Instead, the matter was fought out in courts of law where Lekota emerged victorious with Shilowa continually fighting on in the courts for reprieve. But, the question remains whether a leader can compel people to support him/her because a court of law has declared him/her the leader. Our question is why has democracy never been given a chance in COPE to allow their followers to vote who should lead them? If this is why Lekota, Shilowa and their merry men and women left the ANC searching for democracy, the world is still waiting to see them implement it in the little political corner they have painted themselves into.
You may be wondering as to who is the bishop I'm referring to here, well let me not keep the reader in suspense. There is only one notorious bishop in this country; his name and title is Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. He has acquired for himself a socio-political status that is threatening to overshadow even the majority government that the people of this country have voted into power. As from the moment when Thabo Mbeki was voted out of the leadership of the ANC and removed by the NEC from the country's presidency, the bishop has stood out as one of those who, for a reason they never stated, been bitterly disappointed that Thabo Mbeki was unseated.
It was done by the ANC, democratically, yet the country heard or read that these people were unhappy that Mbeki had been removed from leadership. Those who were ministers resigned, with tears running down their cheeks, and have since been heard on many occasions, denouncing the decisions of the current government. The late Kader Asmal and former Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils are prime examples of those people who have led the charge against decisions that the current government is making. They remain ‘loyal' members of the ANC though.