Cope 'waits with bated breath'

2009-07-09 16:07

Johannesburg - Cope members in various provinces were "waiting with bated breath" for the outcome of a meeting of the party's top brass set to tackle the party's leadership woes.

"I think the members of Cope in the province are waiting with bated breath for the congress national committee meeting this week," said Thabiso Teffo, spokesperson for Limpopo, of the two-day meeting taking place in Johannesburg from Friday.

This followed the resignation of the party's second deputy president, former businesswoman Lynda Odendaal, for reasons which were not yet clear.

Mbulelo Ncedana, chairperson of the Congress of the People in the Western Cape, was also in the dark but said he had received letters from branches indicating that people wanted the leadership to address the issues, but they retained their faith in the organisation.

"Obviously, we don't enjoy people resigning, but this organisation is bigger than people in it," Ncedana said.

"We are waiting for the meeting to take place tomorrow, then we will get a full report."

Difficult situation

Deputy chairperson for Cope youth in Tshwane, Zelda Ngxiki, described the situation "on the ground" as "hard".

"It's really hard, we also as the people on the ground are asking the leadership for answers. But what we are doing is getting together and working, it's hard but not as bad as people expect," she said.

Ngxiki said the reason for Odendaal's departure was unknown even to those in the party.

"We don't know the reasons. She never participated that much but we came up with our own conclusion that it became too hard for her," she said.

Odendaal could not be reached for comment, nor could party spokesperson, Phillip Dexter.

Grinrod goes too

Cope president Mosiuoa Lekota, addressing a media conference in Cape Town on Thursday, was unsure of the reasons for Odendaal's departure.

Recent reports had painted a dismal picture of the state of the fledgling party, citing the party's financial and leadership woes.

Simon Grindrod - a former senior executive committee member and head of elections for the party - earlier compiled a memorandum in which he described the party as racked by "divisions and undemocratic principles".

Grindrod resigned as a member of Cope's national working committee and as the party's head of elections, but remained an ordinary member.

"It is becoming my view that a great fraud has been perpetrated against the South African electorate and I will no longer be part of leading it," he said in a letter to the party's general secretary earlier this week.

- SAPA