Cope open to coalitions

2011-05-18 21:01

Johannesburg - The embattled Congress of the People remained open to coalitions with opposition parties, its acting deputy general secretary Lyndall Shope-Mafole said on Wednesday.

"We are absolutely open to coalitions because South Africans forget that the very birth of our first democratic state was a coalition between the ANC and the National Party," she said at the Independent Electoral Commission results centre in Pretoria.

"So why shouldn't opposition parties enter into coalitions if those stark opposites could?" she asked.

Cope has been plagued by infighting, with each of its co-founders Mosiuoa Lekota and Mbhazima Shilowa, at one point, declaring themselves president of the party.

Shope-Mafole said the party had "great expectations" of its performance in its first local election on Wednesday.

"Anything that we win is basically from zero. People wrote us off so that puts less pressure on us."

- SAPA