The expelled councillor for the Congress of the People (Cope) in the City of Tshwane, Ofentse Moalusi, says he was taken by surprise by the news that his party membership had been terminated in view of his being part of a newly formed coalition of minority political parties called the South African Rainbow Alliance (Sara).
Moalusi was shown the door alongside Joburg Council speaker Colleen Makhubele, who told the media on Wednesday that she was fired because she has “courage to lead men”.
Moalusi said he was duly elected by presidents of other minority political parties as chairperson of Sara.
Despite having serious reservations about their sacking, the pair have decided not to challenge it.
Moalusi said: “I will not challenge my expulsion. We have decided to move and go ahead with Sara because we believe in the concept of bringing the minority together to contest the 2024 election.”
He claimed that Cope president Mosiuoa Lekota was also part of the process to initiate Sara in August.
“Every Monday we would meet with all presidents of all minority parties. He (Lekota), having been part of the United Democratic Front, was passionate about this thing. We don’t know what really happened between our last meeting and now that led to my expulsion from Cope,” he said.
Moalusi thought that there were “some elements within the party” that might have influenced the whole process of terminating his membership because “they are obviously not happy with Sara and are not happy with the direction that Sara was taking”.
He told the Pretoria News that he was taken by surprise by the decision to oust him from the party.
“I was not told that I will be sacked. I was not even aware that there was a press briefing that day to discuss my sacking. I had a meeting at the Gauteng provincial office of Cope on Saturday. None of the people in the meeting actually discussed the termination of my membership. So, I was shocked,” he said.
He added: “Monday morning I spoke to president Lekota. I am very close with him. We have been working together on the new formation. I called him on Monday morning to check if he is attending the meeting that was planned for 10am for Sara. He didn’t tell me that I will be sacked on the day. So, I was taken by surprise. I was shocked. I heard from the media that I have actually been terminated from Cope.”
Asked whether he felt betrayed by the expulsion, Moalusi said: “I don’t feel betrayed. Not really, I understand that this is politics. People told me that this is how politics works.
“Cope gave me an opportunity to actually contest for the mayorship of the City of Tshwane. It is not really a betrayal, it is more of a disappointment in terms of how the process of terminating me was followed.
“I was not even given an opportunity to make presentations, and taken through the process of disciplinary as per the Cope constitution. I was just terminated like that.”
He believed that the grounds on which he was expelled were not justified.
“Remember that Sara is not yet a political party. So I was expelled with reasons being that I joined another political movement. So, Sara is not even a political party and really the grounds for my expulsion are baseless,” Moalusi said.
His sacking comes eight months after he was deployed by Cope to join the Tshwane council and contest for the mayorship position against the incumbent mayor, Cilliers Brink.
In March, Brink won the contest by 109 votes while Moalusi obtained 102 votes.
Pretoria News