Johannesburg - Cope factions are set to face off in court over their tit-for-tat suspensions and claims that the party’s former Ekurhuleni proportional representation councillor was an ANC member when he was elected last year.
The faction led by party president Mosioua Lekota and its national chairperson Teboho Loate is heading to the South Gauteng High Court to enforce the purported suspensions of deputy president Willie Madisha, national spokesperson Dennis Bloem and secretary for elections Mzwandile Hleko and interdict and restrain them from acting as Cope officials and representatives.
Cope wants Madisha, Bloem and Hleko to cease to regard themselves as office bearers, spokespersons and representatives of the party, and not attend any meeting of its structures. Madisha, who along with Lekota is Cope’s only MP, will be allowed to continue executing his duties as its public representative in Parliament.
Cope also wants the three leaders to be barred from visiting and occupying its head office in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni, or any address it may select as its headquarters.
In his affidavit, Loate accuses Madisha, Bloem and Hleko of refusing and acting in defiance of their suspensions, which were announced in August.
Loate wants the interim interdict to remain operational until the outcome of the investigation into the trio’s conduct in bringing Cope into disrepute is known. In retaliation, Madisha suspended Lekota for allegedly dividing Cope, holding frequent meetings to form parallel structures and being unable to perform his duties due to ill health, among other reasons.
Loate told the court no congress national committee (CNC) meeting was convened and the decision to suspend Lekota could not have been lawfully taken.
The CNC is Cope’s highest decision-making body between national congresses. Loate said Madisha, Bloem and Hleko were unhappy with the ousting of Ndzipo Kalipa earlier this year from the Ekurhuleni council, where he was also a member of the mayoral committee responsible for infrastructure.
According to Loate, Kalipa was not qualified to hold a position as a councillor. “To this end, the ANC had provided a letter confirming that Kalipa was still a member of the ANC.”
Kalipa was recalled by Cope in June and Loate said Madisha, Bloem and Hleko resented to his removal and his replacement by Tom Mofokeng and lobbied the Gauteng congress provincial committee to reverse the move.
He said Madisha sent several letters to the Ekurhuleni city manager and speaker to try to force Mofokeng’s removal but was unsuccessful. Madisha also filed an urgent application at the North Gauteng High Court in July for Kalipa to be reinstated as a councillor and for Mofokeng to be removed, according to Loate.
However, Madisha failed to file his replying affidavit and the matter was withdrawn before it could be heard. Kalipa, who was Cope’s Ekurhuleni mayoral candidate during the local government elections in November last year, had been informed in several unanswered letters between April and June that there were moves to recall him as a councillor as he had failed to prove his membership.
“Because of your failure to respond to our letters and provide us with the requested information, you have left us with no option but to advise our client to recall you as its proportional representative councillor in Ekurhuleni,” Cope’s lawyers Madlela Gwebu Mashamba wrote to Kalipa at the end of May.
Bloem told the Sunday Independent they are opposing the application.
He said they had indicated to the court they would oppose the matter and expected the court to give them a date in due course.
When asked if Loate’s allegations that Kalipa was an ANC member were true, Kalipa forwarded his Cope membership card dated March 29, 2022.