At the heart of the current battle within Cope, it seems to me, is the battle between the old, which is refusing to die, and the new, which is hindered from being born. This political stalemate will kill Cope if an urgent political intervention is not found in the next few weeks. South Africans can be very fickle and the bad publicity is building up into a national psyche of disappointment where the party will be written off as a bunch of losers from Polokwane looking for an alternative means of survival — something that Cope has denied all along, largely successfully. The recent attempts at horse-trading by its leaders indicates that some among them have as a primary preoccupation their livelihoods rather than the future of the party, let alone the needs of ordinary people who can best be served by having a credible black-led opposition party. Sadly the politics of the stomach have engulfed the party. Consider the following events:
Terror Lekota has been the president of Cope for 18 months. Throughout his tenure he has only visited the caucus of Cope in parliament once. He admits that his primary task of building branches has not taken off after 18 months. He has degraded the discussion of parliament off the agenda of most Cope meetings he chaired. Dandala was never allowed to present any decent report for the entire year. Suddenly, when the wind is blowing against the retention of his make-shift crown, he is concerned about the party’s finances in parliament. He has never showed interest in developing Cope’s strategy as an alternative government. As it turns out the books are squeaky clean and the allegations of irregularities false. The attempt to besmirch his opponent has backfired and has been exposed as nothing but political desperation — only aimed at retaining his salary at Cope House.
None of the people who are flanking Lekota have been nominated by any significant Cope structures since nominations opened weeks ago. They have been comfortable with an MP salary they did not have to work too hard to earn, and have been alienated from branches. In fact most of them don’t even belong to a branch. If they do they have hardly been to a single meeting. As it stands they don’t qualify to even be on the ballot should Cope elections take place today owing to a failure to reach the 30% support threshold required. This is why they are not happy to proceed with the elective conference. Their gripe about branches that support Lekota being disqualified makes little or no sense. The audit team was lead by Lekota’s chief adviser, Thozamile Botha, as well as the respected Neville Mompati, who presented an audit report (that was adopted) to the congress national committee (CNC). On this basis the CNC confirmed its readiness to go to the Cope polls. At issue is the fact that should these elections proceed their salaries will suddenly disappear as the inevitable reshuffling in parliament may have to take place.
After questioning the legitimacy of the credentials of branches that have passed the audit, in private these comrades of convenience have been negotiating deals for themselves to secure positions that were likely to be an outcome of this process they suspected they could not stop. When their bizarre suggestions, among others, proposing that Smuts Ngonyama be made chairperson of the party and Lekota a parliamentary leader, were correctly rejected — they resorted to open deal-making through the CNC to force the congress to be abandoned. Besides the fact that making someone like Smuts chairperson will take the party back to the stone ages, it exposes the fact that there is no desire to present anything fresh to the South African public. it also underlines that given a position or two, this lot could have easily gone to congress — the same congress they claim is illegitimate. If you doubt that their focus is in their intestines ask yourself why they were nowhere to be seen at the policy discussions even though they insisted through court action that congress be a policy indaba. They were nowhere to be found as members battled to make sense of some of the most horrendous policy drafts they were responsible for. What is bizarre is that these slippery comrades believe that the delegates are good enough to discuss policy but not fit to discuss leadership — tells you plenty — and everything points to the stomach once again.
As if this is not enough evidence of these disgraceful politics of the stomach, the latest court application by this lot states that their parliamentary seats must not be tampered with. This comes as no discussion has ever taken place about the so-called purge. But what can you do with the conscience of the guilty? Surely if Cope members have no confidence in them they will have no business in parliament. Besides their big stomachs, who will they be representing in the national assembly?
Unless Cope undergoes a metamorphosis that will result in something fresh and new to South Africa, it can kiss its political fortunes goodbye. The national congress and all the drama of these past few weeks represents a further squandering of the voters’ confidence in Cope as a future government. But sometimes things need to get worse in order to get better. For Cope to rise from these ashes it must rid itself of some of these relics of the past and start a process of rising from the bottom with a dynamic leadership core all can accept and the country can respect.
Where is your balanced critique of Shilowa’s tenure as Whip?
Please read Phillip Dexter’s article at the following URL. It is a few weeks old, but still very much relevant. http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71654?oid=179740&sn=Detail
Otherwise I will not comment on things written by ANC members that pretend to be COPE members. The system will flush them out and they will go back to their master. I doubt if their master will be much forgiving if they come back not having achieved their mission. I fear for the ANC.
Comeon Marius dont pretend that u have not seen me criticise shilowa…..this article is about Lekota it is not an intellectual egg dance
Is labeling someone an ANC person your best argument here….is cutting and pasting someone else’s flawd arguments your best reply….then you are in the wrong forum. We can only enegage with arguments here nothing more nothing less….
The last time I saw you JJ, you had a big stomach and you were from Parliament nogal. Is that not a case of a kettle calling the pot black. Ja neh!
Anyway, you are listed as Dandala’s political adviser, may be you can enlignten us, why fail to provide leadership in his party’s hour of need? or by the way, where is he in the midst of all this?Or maybe he learned some quiet diplomacy from his mentor Mbeki.
Fact is COPE was built on a faulty foundation and unfortunately the cracks did not take long to show. Now the house has crumbled and the insults are flying.
This must rank as the biggest political fraud the country has ever seen in its short history. A million plus voters taken for a ride with a promise of non existent hope.
JJs claim to fame in the COPE has been an avalanche of articles,articles which more often than not exchanged insults.
Where is the evidence of the active membership of JJ.To which branch do you belong,what amount of work have you done to earn your keep.Nothwithstanding the fact that it is your supposed proffessionalism that in the first instance made your a viable proposition to COPE,Your whole tenure and mode of operation has been a dissapointment.Your status as a proffessional communicator is so compromised because you have reduced yourselves to a sounding board for the Shilowa Propaganda. To spew lies and claim that the Shilowa faction is the only one whose values are identical with the values and interests of the party and also falsely claim itsellf to be vehicle for the true consciousness of the COPE is to undermine the intelligence of the people of the country.The proffessionalism that you purport to bring into COPE,IS HEAD QUARTER DRIVEN AND SPIN DOCTOR ORIENTATED,YOUR PROFFEESD PROFFESSIONALISM IS A DISDAIN FOR BRANCHES AND MASS CHARACTER ORGANISATION DEEPLY ROOTED AND ENTRENCHED IN OUR COMMUNITIES.Lastly,by way of advice to the JJs of this world.Chief Luthuli once adviced PAC renegades “that in order to get to the tap whence water flows from you will have to wade through dirty waters”.A viable alternative and strong organisation wiil npt be built by spin doctoring and catchy phrases.
I wonder how many meetings / activities of his own branch has Mr Tabane attended over the past 18 months. He never attended a single meeting of the Midrand Zone that ensured the existence of COPE in Midrand Zone and put in place interim branches thoughout the his zone and the Midrand Central Interim Branch that planned and implemented election campaigns in Midrand, fundraised for printing posters, campaign pamphlets, booking general meeting venues and ensuring that the party agents have food to eat while carrying out the COPE work in the voting stations. We never seen him when dooing door to door campaigns in the informal settlements of K60, Hannie Park, Ivory etc.He was not there when his branch was working hard to ensure that iutr has enough members to launch and never even attended the launch of his branch. As much as we need intellectuals and political analysts, we also expect the leaders to be part of the activities of their branches and zones. Mr Tabane was only seen seen in newspapers. If he truly believes that COPE needs new leadership, Cde Shilowa and Lobe and the rest of the CWC should carry the same blame as Lekota. You can’t blame the president and not blame his deputy and his secretary. This article is just a spin to promote his faction.
JJ,
You are supposed to be a democrat, through and through and yet you are so intolerant of my views on facebook that you took an extraordinary step of blocking me without any evidence of polemics or ad hominem attacks from me to you. I ensure, whenever I write, that my words are measured and temperate, and above all respectful of the views of others. Do the same.
I put it to you that whoever stroke your ego for you to be so vain, has done an intolerable damage to your psyche.
Be that as it may, I would like to put it to you that you need ntate Dandala in that position more than he needs you. I am quite certain certain the old man must have been very embarrassed by your presumptuous behaviour as you hurled insults at your elders and demonstrated the most boorish of behaviours since the birth of COPE.
Leave ntate Lekota alone and engage me and others who are more or less your peers.To say you are my peer is an incredible act of modesty on my part. Still, I would like to grant you benefit of the doubt.
I was schooled in Marxism-Leninism and to become so vulgar in the interpretation of the old giving way to the new is a total transmogrification of the notion of the negation of the negation.
Go back JJ and think, if you can, that is. The sleep of reason produces monsters. Haven’t you heard?
Such a pity some ‘leaders’ don’t rely on being voted in. Surely Lekota knows that he does not have the majority vote in the party. Just shows that he is not a leader as a good leader knows when to lead and when to follow.
We used to say in the army – smile things can’t get worse. So we smiled and guess what – things got worse.
Cope unfortunately is on the slippery slope.
I’ll carry on voting IFP.
OJJ Thabane has done nothing to unify COPE as have none of the provinciAL LEADERS. Lekota defende demoocracy and corruption. Corruption comes in many forms inculding the violations of hunam dignity and the constitution. here hoping Lekota will lead and ensure the rot is remove. Some times a leader has to stand for what we want and we we do not want has been defined. Lekota needs to act and fast
Tabane,
The shenanigans that have played themselves publicly in the prelude and aftermath of the so-called policy-congress-turned-elective-congress-turned-back-to-policy-congress-and-then-back-to-elective-congress-and-then-deligitimated-by-the-courts have made many of us who voted Cope in the last election to wonder out loud if our earlier resolve to abstain from voting was not the best option we could have taken.
Yes, you can sugar-coat the shitty leadership squabbles (that have torpedoed the initial concept of Cope) in whatever way you believe you are gifted with skilfully spinning about, but what is certain is that these shenanigans will have serious implications for the voter turnout for Cope in the next elections. If you do not believe this, then wait and see……….
JJ, I’m more interested in your claim for the politics of stomach. That is rather interesting for me.
Do you still remeber how you left Cope HQ for Parliament, you demanded to be paid. Cope suffered immensely because of your departure. Your stomach was rather more important than building COPE.
Interestingly, you deserted COPE, the organization and you have re-emerged as a spin doctor of an individual (Mbhazima Shilowa).
What would motivate someone like you to rise up for an individual, while deserting and organization that needed you so much?
Dishonest appropriation of another person’s initiative with intent to deprive him of it permanently is not politics but theft. The political elite exploit the lower multitudes, by subterfuge, to rise up the system, gain more benefits and rewards for themselves. They then use the power attached thereto to protect themselves from being replaced, persuading themselves and their followers of their right to rule.
So mrena, what’s “new” about the Express henchmen? Andile, John, Anele, Mluleki, Lobe and Shilowa himself. And why would Smuts and Terror being in leadership positions take Cope back?
This man (J J Tabane)is very disapointing. I wonder what Shilobe promised you , you dont seem to care about the organisation at all.
Most of the time i think what you preach is what you have been told, clearly your statements are not building. What kind of a leader are you , COPE can not afford to lose a single member at this point in time , whave already lost too much due to Shilobe express that is sidelining real COPE members.
Do you even care?
JJ, you are hopelessly blinded by your raw hatred for Terror and strangely confused on what to do next in your quest to become the President of the Republic in 15 years, as you told some of the COPE parliamentary staff. I will not respond to all the inaccuracies in your article, but focus on the BIG LIE. You allege that “As it turns out the books are squeaky clean and the allegations of irregularities false.” JJ, you know, and so do all of us, that is simply not true. There are 32 heavily contested payments made from Cope constituency funds, including the payment of “special forces style” protection including look-out posts for Mbhazima at a rally. Why does he need that type of protection? Terror is driving himself to his rallies. You forgot that someone faked Denis Bloem’s signature because Juli Kilian refused to sign off a list of wastefull payments, and you know who did that, she is your facebook buddy. You forget the two budgets Nikiwe Num falsely applied for an outreach program (read setting up of ghost branches) and Mbulelo Ncedana (for his “conference coronation party” gave Shilowa to sign off, where the latter made a note in the bottom of the sheets, “pay out directly, no invoices required now”. You know, JJ, that parliament will investigate us, but you prefer to lie about all that, just to take a cheap shot at Terror and Smuts. You have lost the plot JJ. Shame on you.
when Cope compiled their lists those people in parliament now were not from structures you in Cope should have made certain after elections your structures were in place but you did not the other thing is a political party cannot be based on disgruntled people but it should be based on people caring about people Cope should have exchanged notes with NADECO in order to find out how to avoid what is happening in Cope now
JJ Tabane should be ashamed of him self. It seems his mind was floating somewhere in the Nile river when he was writing this article. He wants to project himself and his cabbal as messiahs but unfortunately you will not fool us the masses of the people. I think COPE should urgently set up a Political school to educate opportunistic individuals like himself and his gang before they destroy the party. He is only preoccupied by elavating certain individuals to “godly” status because he thinks if they ascend to power he will be rewarded by powerful positions. He is not concerned about the Party at all. The party will not built by the individuals and cabbals but by the collective including himself, the President Lekota, Shilowa, Smuts, the entire membership (not some branches loyal to individuals) and prospective members. Please smell the coffee JJ we will not be fooled by you.
Fellow South Africans, an election will resolve this.
A new product has only one chance to make a first impression and when it fails to deliver the market will reject it. This has got nothing to do with South African’s being fickle as you suggest. It has to do with failure.
Cope was a new product marketed on pure hype with no substantive basis for existing other than the idea that it was ‘agin’ the existing order. It was ANC lite [with a little l as it turned out].
It failed. End of story. Cancel idea and move on to a product that offers more than more of the same. No vision no glory. We already have a whole arsenal of self serving ………… [insert own epithet] We have no need for more.
Hello JJ, are you there? why are so quet? You managed to respond to the first two bloogers, say something please?
I hate to say “we told you so”. How is the Shilowa express, is it moving?
Give us more dirt he,he,he…
Guliw’ elihle…
Things always seem darkest just before they go completely black . . .
@Fezile….You are dissapointing my brother.Ever heard of the word debate? I wait to see a coherent argument you can put together to defend Terror”s dismal perfomance over the last eighteen months. I am not going to respond to your childish insullts. Debate the matter on the table and dont hide behind insults. Oh by the way we are watching with intrest as you disaband branches that defied your scheme not to come to congress… So long Kies – see you at the congress.
@Madoda – I am a branch member of Midrand Primary – in good standing. I cant compete with your record of attendance of branch meetings. All of us have a role to play. I play mine I am sure you play yours…My branch is happey with my role in the public arena and have encouraged me to carry on and ensure debates in the newspapers – that is enough for me..and I shall so carry on…I attend meetings of my branch reularly enough hence that branch nominated me for office as well as monimated me to be its representative at the PGC as well as the Provicial Congress….Does that earn me enough Kudos in your branch register? Hopefully. See u at future branch meetings…..take care Madoda…..by the way what is your view on the politics of the stomach – the subject of my blog? I guess we will never find out as you are more intrested in paddling lies about my particiaption in a branch?
@Sello
I am awaiting you to use your marxism to debate. I am also awaiting you to point out any insult against elders in my argument. COPE is not a monarchy where anyone is aboove criticism. Lekota has failed to unite this party. That is not an insult but a political assesment shared by delegates at a congress that passed a motion of no confidence on Terror.
Please point out these insults to this forum.
The Brain is a funny thing as you observed – it has no respect for silly ranking of peers. Lekota cant articulate much of COPE policies – it explains why he would not have been in good compant at what he insisted should be a policy conference….Is that an insult as well maybe. Its my view – get used to democracy. Get used to debate. No matter how highly you may think of yourself…..
“Fact is COPE was built on a faulty foundation and unfortunately the cracks did not take long to show. Now the house has crumbled and the insults are flying.
This must rank as the biggest political fraud the country has ever seen in its short history.”
Maxx2, I support you 100% on this. Even before the so-called Bloemfontein Convention, Charlotte Lobe claimed that COPE had over 400,000 members. Where are those members now?
I agree with JJ, to the extend that COPE was formed because of the “politics of the stomach” nothing else!
JJ, in your heart, you now the truth. It would be very dishonest of you to deny any of my comments regarding your participation in COPE activities in Midrand. I won’t comment any further on that. Your contribution in the media to the COPE’s 7% is also questionable. You did more to criticise COPE after the elections than you promoted it before the elections.
What is your take on being exposed as a liar with regard to the money Shilowa stole?
I am really loving cope circus, will be back with a proper comment later on.
@ Madoda. You have now run out of criticism. You dont need to go further that review this entire blog – There are exactly two aretilces that were critical of COPE one published in the Sunday Times and another in the Independent…for which Lekota wished to see me fired over unsuccessfully. Now to claim that I wrote more to criticise COPE after the elections when only 2 or 3 articles out of the over 30 i wrote here and elsewhere were articulating pro COPE policies on various national matters is total lies. Please you can do better. I stand by what I said re my branch particiaption. If you have a complaint you can take it up with the branch – there is no point in engaging you further on that matter.
JJ
JJ
Please name just one branch (just one )in the Northern Cape that was disbanded because they attended the congress.
@Linskay -CAN ANYONE WITH EVIDENCE THAT SHILOWA STOLE MONEY PLEASE GO TO THE POLICE AND LAY A CHARGE?! PLEASE.
This JJ guy is increasingly making a mockery out of his desperate self.
Go to the ANC and ask for a job boet, your days of spinning for a pastor are long gone now. OKay!
JJ, you are also atacking people here and not addressing their concerns. You must be a bitter person because Terror is definitely not going to need your services as his spokesperson in parliament. By the way, even the DA does not want you in its ranks and the KISS party may accept your membership under duress!!
the worst times are indeed past us,the better times are ahead