Many people, myself included, had hoped and believed that the Congress of the People (Cope) would be a credible alternative to the ruling party. Sadly, Cope has from its start been plagued by two factions: those who are committed to and wanted to build this credible alternative, and those who opportunistically sought to advance their political careers and enlarge their bank accounts through any and all means possible.
Considering recent lamentable events in the short history of the party, it is understandable that some would want to consign it to the trash can of South African political history. While it is not necessarily impossible that the party go that route, I do think that eulogies are being written prematurely, partly because I hate to admit that I was wrong!
The eventual decline of the ANC is, as far as the history of liberation movements across the continent go, inevitable. There is, however, still a dire need for a credible representative mass political alternative with broad-based appeal not only as alternative to the ANC, but also as means for ensuring the ruling party is kept on its toes by a party that is perceived to legitimately represent the interests of the majority of South Africans.
While the road ahead for the party in redeeming itself in the hearts and minds of the public will indubitably be a difficult, and long, one it is not impossible if coupled with the political will, desire and commitment to see it through. I wouldn’t turn off the life support system just yet.
The party requires an extreme make-over to overhaul its already severely tainted public image. This must, however, be met with a concerted and credible effort towards addressing a number of organisational and political issues plaguing the party, of which the leadership struggle is not the least of it.
It is in this regard that Cope could and should take notes from the DA, a party that has successfully changed and continues to change its image and alter public perceptions of the organisation. The DA pragmatically embarked on a campaign geared at sustainable growth in electoral support and has maintained respectable levels of increased support since 1994. While external factors should not be dismissed, it was largely the result of the emergence of new leaders, the adoption and implementation of effective political strategy, and a public relations and media campaign of note. The DA has also offered constant, substantive and critical opposition to the ANC granting it exposure in the public eye. The official opposition has also established effective training and grooming grounds for future leaders injecting necessary sustainability in its efforts beyond Helen Zille.
The party would do well to learn from the DA, and:
- Democratically and legitimately elect regional, provincial and national executive officials with a mandate to formulate and implement a campaign strategy for the 2011 Local Government Elections;
- Identify, train and groom potential future leaders from the pool of 35 – 45 year old members in the organisation to take the party beyond 2014;
- Develop and implement an effective public relations and communication strategy;
- Effectively tackle administration in both parliament and Cope House which, under Lobe and Mashiane, has been dismal and wrought with factional agendas and politicisation;
- Provide constant, vocal and substantive opposition to the ANC in parliament, an arena in which Shilowa as Chief Whip has performed poorly and unconvincingly;
- Draft and implement a strategic cooperation initiative with opposition parties heading into the LGEs next year, particularly in metropolitan and urban areas, and in key provinces like the Free State and Northern Cape;
- Endeavour earnestly to redress weaknesses that have tainted the party’s image and credibly rebrand itself as an inclusive, modern, effective, efficient and progressive political alternative as it claimed to be upon its founding.
It will be necessary for Cope to shed its ANC image if it is to be taken seriously as an alternative by South African society. In this regard it should speedily address ill-disciplined members, chaotic and disruptive meetings and congresses; root out or neutralise individuals who taint its image and use party mechanisms for self-enrichment and political advancement. Political ambition is not the issue, unprincipled ambition and careerism is; particularly when coupled with nepotism, self-enrichment and dirty, underhanded politics.
As with the ANC and its 52nd National Conference in Polokwane, many argued that the party would split and that a breakaway is inevitable, which was constantly downplayed by the ANC and by both ‘camps’ in the organisation then. It is equally inevitable that there will be winners and losers come 30 September and Cope’s first elective congress. The possibility of a split has been downplayed by both factions, but only history shall be the judge, particularly as Mofihli Likotsi, Congress National Committee member and Shilowa-ally, has already registered a, what he calls “social movement”, with the Independent Electoral Commission at the national level.
I believe that South Africans must give Cope a second chance and that the organisation should be prepared to accept a sharp decrease in electoral support, should it turn out to be the case. The party has competent and capable strategists and merely requires the political will and commitment to embark on the long and arduous journey towards overhauling its public image, and overturning trends of decreased public and electoral support. The CNC has already taken a number of progressive and decisive steps toward ensuring the organisational overhaul of the party, only time will tell whether this will be successful and bear fruit.
@Marius
You are a brave man writing something positive on this blog about the DA and acknowledging some of their strengths and achievements.
Prepare for a barrage of insults from the usual suspects (big on slogans, hyperbole and assumptions / axioms – short on facts or logical, reasoned argument)- probably in the form of one-liners.
I’m convinced, no amount of breaking away can cure us of the real ailment afflicting politics in SA – IT’S ALL ABOUT POWER FOR POWER’S SAKE.
An astute foreign diplomat observed that when Mr. Zuma won the presidency, it was evident to him (the diplomat) that Mr. Zuma saw that as an end in itself. A symptom of the ailment I speak of, if you will.
At least it was something real – THE PRESIDENCY. With COPE it is a plaything, the right to be called “Cde President” by party supporters who by now surely number far less than 1.3 million!
Marius, you have noble objectives, but you presuppose that anybody wants to learn anything. In South African culture, once a credible (in the eyes of the observer) speaks then that’s it. There is no discussion, no justification, no rationale, just blind obeisance. It Is So. And worse than anything is to suggest that Eurocentric (as they would perceive the DA to be) models would provide any kinds of answers to any kind of governance challenge are a complete anathema. The basis for ANC and COPE is JFDI – Just Friggin Do It. No how or why or help or monitoring. And that’s where we are now.
Most of the ideas which you outline for the improvement of CoPe are ideas which are obvious for any political party. Hence it is clear that CoPe is dysfunctional at the most basic level. If it does not have proper administration after all this time, surely this is not because nobody in CoPe ever thought that proper administration was a good idea.
In other words, the problem is not a lack of good ideas, but a lack of leadership willing to carry those ideas out.
When you suggest that CoPe needs to learn from the DA you are on far weaker ground. The DA succeeded by turning itself into a successor organisation to the National Party (absorbing most of the old NP’s structures). CoPe cannot do the same with the ANC; it has gone as far as it will go in that directiion.
More to the point, there is already a DA. If CoPe tries to become like the DA, it will either be crushed or absorbed. The DA has immense financial resources and media support. Besides, bluntly, CoPe’s electoral base is in the african community and this is not a place for DA-style political to flourish, even now.
Rather, CoPe should learn from the ANC — as its name suggests, and therefore get back to the best of the pre-Zuma era. It probably won’t work, but it’s worth trying.
Marius your are amongst the few youth brigades or leaders that S.A lacks. How I wish “JFDI” syndrome could vanish into thin air, unfortunately S.A. politics have turned to be politics of greed. The norm is lack of integrity, honesty and transparency.
I love my party COPE and I shall remain a member for as long as it upholds its founding principles- DEMOCRACY, CONSTITUTIONALITY,ANTI-CORRUPTION,etc. I am impressed by the fact that you can learn from others which all Cope members should learn.
Keep on rekindling our socio-political conscience.
Oh Marius, Marius – can you swallow the truth and reality ? Here goes:
- Mbeki vs Zuma fight for ANC presidency
- Magwaza-Msibi vs Musa Zondi for IFP presidency
- Letlapa Mphahelele vs Thami ka Plaatjie for PAC presidency
- Shilowa vs Lekota for COPE presidency
Do u notice the trend and the fight waged to lead political parties in SA ?
The shameful fact about this latest phenomenon is that they aren’t fighting over which policy their parties should take, but it’s just rather over what your colleague JJ Tabane called “politics of the stomach” somewhere here.
Go figure !
I would argue that only a broad civic movement, as per the UDF, would offer a real alternative and a ‘sea change’ of the political culture and values in SA. You correctly point out some pluses and minuses of various parties. However SA is no Jeffersonian democracy, and the reality is that our culture is that of a de facto one-party state, and voting a somewhat ‘rubber stamp’ process, as is parliament. Hence this is not a simple Republicans vs Democrats type of political environment where ‘normal’ democratic maturity applies and people effect major changes through the ballot box. It was pointed out that paradoxically the only trend that may lead to a ‘greater democratisation’ in SA would be declining service delivery or severe economic crisis – in other words, the paradox being that things would have to get a lot worse before they get better. Unfortunately both are likely to be exploited by opportunistic and populist politicians at severe cost to SA as a whole. There is some good analysis on this phenomenom by several analysts.
Surely it would be better for them to learn from the ANC rather than from the DA? After all, the ANC IS in power and the DA has NEVER been in power.
You sound more like a self made DA mole…
In this case, neither Dexkota nor Shilobe wins…By bringing irrelevant DA rant, you sommor destroyed both camps. The Hyena style.
Give COPE a second chance? Seriously? No point in flogging a dead horse. They had their chance, and they messed it up… royally!
Since the last elections what have they actually achieved? What tangible results do they have to show? An incompetent youth leader? A spin doctor passed his prime just cashing in while he still can? Warring leaders? and a party plagued to its core by infighting and corruption.
Give them a second chance? You can’t be serious?
I think the other point you’re missing of ‘lessons from the DA’ is to have a clearly defined political ideology. The DA’s liberalism, while shuffling a few steps to the left and to the right on some issues in the past and no doubt going into the future, has served as the party’s lodestone and anchor for 50 years and through all its previous incarnations.
COPE simply flails about in the wind due to its lack of conceptual clarity. “Progressive” is not an ideology so much as an adjective…
COPE was created by Mbeki’s crew who had their wings clipped at polokwane and faced futures without access to the feeding frenzy within the ANC. You cannot run a party with no leader, no discernable policy and no viable vision for the country. MBeki lite is dead.
Cope didn’t. It hoped to easily cash in on the fact that its leadership was black African and that this alone would be enough to pull masses of votes. It didn’t need any other significant point of difference such as a clearly-defined policy or philosophy that was different from the ANC or anyone else.
It simply said “we’re black and we’re opposing the ANC .. so, what more could you possibly want?”
It didn’t ever dare say out loud, “We really like Mbeki” because so many voters didn’t like him and he’d be a huge vote-loser.
It was AGAINST a lot — political personalities mainly — but FOR hardly anything identifiable, beyond hollow, hackneyed cliches and slogans.
There is no objective need for the multiplicity of smaller opposition parties. They all have the same objectives:
- Everyone wants to eliminate poverty
- Everyone wants improved economic growth
- Everyone wants to eliminate crime
- Everyone wants full employment
- Everyone wants maximum freedom
- Everyone wants peaceful co-existence of differing cultural, language, religious, and racial groups.
- etc etc etc
Policies to meet these objectives vary, but not—in my opinion—to the same extent as the number of parties. I think that the policy differences between Cope, ID, IFP and DA are marginal. In an ideal world, they should merge. However, there are two practical problems:
1. Parties exist, by and large, to feed the egos (and the pockets) of the party leaders. (Parliamentary party leaders have lots of perks, paid for by us, the taxpayers: secretarial allowances, office space, etc.)
2. The ANC has successfully managed to build a fictional image of the DA in the minds of the Black electorate: that it is a white party, that it has links with apartheid, that it is unsympathetic towards the poor, that it is the arm of capitalist big business, etc. All of this is, of course, total nonsense. The DA’s roots are in the Progressive Party and has a social-democratic economic agenda. The DA’s real “crime” has been to appoint its leaders on merit only. If Blacks of sufficient quality were to be part of the DA, they would soon rise to the top of the hierarchy.
Marius’ admiration for the DA’s is restricted to marketing (did he study Carter’s presidential campaign for his master’s?). Image, branding and presentation can go so far, but without substance any marketing campaign is ultimately doomed to failure.
Judging by his demographics, Marius is not the typical ANC-lite member making up Cope. However his analysis is most revealing in what it omits: that, since 1959, the DA and its forebears were formed to promote its key values around non-racial liberalism, or the Open Society and in revulsion to the abuses that the Nats and ANC have in common.
To their credit, Mbeki, Malema & co have been successful in falsely “branding” the DA as racist with a vilification and misinformation campaign straight out of the Marxist handbook. This is a hurdle the DA has not successfully overcome yet, although its rule in the W Cape may address this.
Having formed around values and principles, the DA chose its strategies and leadership accordingly.
I get the impression that Cope is a party formed around personalities and factions and is still looking for its principles and to distinguish itself from, say the UDM or ID.
It is perhaps not on to unduly focus on the DA in this thread, but people who proclaim the non-racial identity of the DA must try to account for the DA’s recent decision to kick out the african Joe Seremane and replace him with a nice pale coloured guy.
The fact is, it’s a white-run party which depends on coloured votes, exactly like the NP after 1994. Nothing to be embarrassed about (Tony Leon made the party’s racial priorities absolutely clear) and therefore not worth lying about. But definitely not something for any party wishing to run South Africa (rather than lobby for white ruling-class interests) to imitate.
Marius,
Just admit that you were wrong…and move on with your life COPEless.Admiting dat u were wrong is the 1st step to healing….
Dont make the mistake of measuring the success/potential of COPE with the successes + failures of other political parties…
Its impossible to turn COPE into an alternative bcoz its leaders dont have political will to do so, they are nt committed and dnt hv desire to see COPE flouring…they are more commited to politics of the stomach…thats the reason why most of them left the ANC in the first place….
Since you see so many positives in DA, my advice to you is just go and join Hellen and her team….
This is a fact: COPE will never shed its ANC image…
I dont see why COPE shud be given a chance…to do what? I never gave it a chance coz it was formed out of anger…and they are still angry even today…lol