A scuffle broke out during a press briefing addressed by recently suspended Cope president Mosiuoa Lekota in Boksburg, Ekurhuleni, on Wednesday.
Lekota decided to hold the briefing today in response to party members who on Tuesday announced that he was suspended with immediate effect.
Among the reasons given by the Congress National Committee (CNC) was that Lekota was dividing the party and lacked energy because of his weak health.
It was believed that Lekota wanted to announce the suspension of those who suspended him, saying that he was not frail.
A number of unidentified but clearly disgruntled men wearing Cope T-shirts stormed inside the briefing and suddenly microphones and fists flew in all directions until some members contained the brawl.
The disgruntled party members, who claimed to be Cope’s youth league members, questioned Lekota for addressing the press conference.
Within seconds of storming in, Lekota froze and his face was stunned, his eyes lit, mouth open, but as he came to his senses he stood up.
While some members were at that moment engaged in fisticuffs and screams were heard, other members, although confused, intervened and called for calm.
Another voice was heard urging others to call the police.
“You have no right to hold this press briefing,” shouted one man.
An unknown man not wearing Cope regalia appeared angry and shouted “this is my father, these people beat my father up”.
Gauteng Cope acting general secretary Mxolisi Ntombela told Lekota and others that the briefing was part of dividing and destroying the party and Lekota had no right to make an address.
Before the commotion began, Lekota told the media that he was not going to the grave.
“I am not going to the grave,” he said. “I am sorry I am not going to the grave.”
Factionalism in the party has recently played out in public for a number of days.
The committee held an urgent meeting on Monday night to address what it believed were extremely critical issues that needed to be urgently dealt with or they would contribute to the weakening of the party.
“He convenes frequent meetings to form parallel structures in Cope, which structures are made to organise and compete against each other instead of building and uniting the party.
“He promotes and supports actions against which Cope was formed. Those actions include corruption, removal of elected leaders and representatives such as councillors.
“The Cope national leadership advised him on several occasions that given his lack of energy and strength to lead the party at the moment, he must step back. Although he agreed on all those occasions, he did not do so.
“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,” said the committee.
In filling the vacant positions of general secretary and deputy general secretary, the committee said it had elected Mzwandile Hleko as the acting general secretary and Ntsikelelo April as the acting deputy general secretary.
“After receiving the report from Gauteng, the committee resolved that Gauteng must immediately take both the former provincial chairperson Tom Mofokeng and the former provincial secretary David Malatji for a disciplinary hearing in-line with the party’s code of conduct,” the committee said.
“Second, the committee directed acting general secretary Mzwandile Hleko to send a letter to the Ekurhuleni council indicating that Mofokeng was no longer a Cope councillor and must be removed with immediate effect.”
Cope’s national spokesperson Dennis Bloem also confirmed that he was not suspended after it was reported that Lekota had suspended him.
“As far as I know I am still the national spokesperson for Cope and no one suspended me,” said Bloem.