THE Congress of the People in the Eastern Cape has called for an elective conference to include both the Mbhazima Shilowa and Mosiuoa Lekota factions. COPE’s two groupings have been at loggerheads ever since a conference held in St Georges Hotel in Pretoria in 2010. It is still under dispute whether the 2010 conference was an elective or a policy conference. COPE provincial secretary Archie Ralo yesterday said even though they did not recognise Lekota as president, they were hoping the South Gauteng High Court would order the party to go to an inclusive elective congress. “Despite the elections that took place at Heartfelt [Arena in Pretoria in 2010], the COPE Eastern Cape believes that the best solution is for [the court] to direct parties to an all-inclusive congress that will elect leadership and lift the interdict against Mr Shilowa,” said Ralo. Shilowa is currently interdicted from participating in COPE activities. Ralo said they wanted both factions to participate in the congress so that they could start to participate in electioneering without factions. He was speaking after a Congress National Committee (CNC) meeting of the Shilowa faction that sat during the past weekend. A statement released yesterday by the deputy president of the Shilowa-led faction, Zale Madonsela, said the province undertook to contest elections as a single united body. “We are confident of the case we have presented before the court as we represent a position that is legally sound and politically sensible. “But we remain absolutely convinced that the court is the wrong forum to solve political problems,” Madonsela said. “The leadership of COPE reaffirmed its position that political matters must remain with political platforms and that no court can legitimise leadership of a political party, but may only legalise it,” he added. Last week a group of senior party leaders gave Lekota an ultimatum to end all court matters and seek a political solution instead. Among them was deputy president Smuts Ngonyama. John Abrie, a COPE spokesman aligned to the Lekota faction, said they would wait until the leadership matter was resolved before negotiating with Shilowa’s people. “We cannot negotiate while there is a court case hanging over our head,” said Abrie. He added that it was the Shilowa faction that had brought today’s court matter. For this reason, they were the ones who should drop the matter first before negotiations could start.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 06:43:25 +0000
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