Cape Town - In an extraordinary turn of events,Congress of the People (Cope) National Chairperson Teboho Loate said the party’s president, Mosiuoa Lekota, remained active and competent to lead.
The party said its deputy president Willie Madisha and “a clique” of leaders were suspended immediately.
This came hours after Madisha told a media briefing in Kempton Park on Monday that Lekota was suspended for his role in “dividing the party”. He claimed Lekota came under fire from some of the branches and senior officials over a litany of accusations.
“He promotes and supports actions against which Cope was formed. Those actions include corruption, removal of elected leaders and representatives such as councillors,” he said.
Madisha added that Lekota had been asked on several occasions to rest, given his lack of energy and (poor) health in recent times, but had failed to heed collective advice.
“Given his health conditions, he is not able to perform what the party and all South Africans expect him to do, which is to attend to the work of Parliament,” Madisha said.
According to him, Lekota was notified of his suspension through a letter written by the party’s acting general secretary.
“Earlier this month, members of the party’s constituency congress committees in Gauteng called for Lekota to step down, which he refused to do. This was after the committee meeting resolved to address some of the challenges facing the party as part of 10 resolutions adopted by Cope in a bid to renew the party ahead of 2024,” party secretary Mxolisi Ntombela said, adding that branches, including Ekurhuleni, Tshwane and two others had agreed that Lekota had violated Cope’s constitution by meddling in the selection of party councillors.
However, in a statement on Monday, COPE national chairperson Teboho Loate said the media briefing and press statement issued by Madisha were a “hasty and desperate attempt to save his own skin, and those of his clique, and to try to confuse the public by spreading falsehoods”.
“The President of COPE, comrade Mosiuoa Lekota, remains active and competent to lead the party and serve as its leader in parliament.
He has the confidence and full support of the Congress National Committee (CNC) as reaffirmed by the meeting of August 20 2022. Any hallucinations by Willie Madisha and his clique must be dismissed with contempt.”
Loate said a clique of three leaders, including Madisha, in the CNC, had been engaged for some time in conduct that was unconstitutional, ambitious, and irrational.
“At a properly and constitutionally convened meeting of the CNC held on August 20 2022, it was resolved to suspend with immediate effect all three of them, pending compliance with the Code of Conduct of the party.”
Cape Times