Cope targets spokespeople

2010-08-24 19:05

Johannesburg - The Congress of the People on Tuesday resolved that JJ Tabane and Sipho Ngwema were not mandated to speak on behalf of the party.

The two were "not and never have been mandated" to speak on behalf of the party, spokesperson Phillip Dexter said.

The resolution was taken at a meeting of Cope's congress working committee.

Both Tabane and Ngwema are former party spokespeople and were seen to be aligned to Cope deputy president Mbhazima Shilowa. The party had in recent months been split by a leadership battle between Shilowa and Cope president Mosiuoa Lekota.

The power wrangling resulted in court battles to reinstate Lekota as party president and more recently, to prevent him from taking up the post of parliamentary leader - left vacant by the departure of former leader Mvume Dandala.

Ngwema described Dexter's comments as "crazy".

"How can he (Dexter) say that when I have been working with him for the past two years?"

He described the CWC's resolution as "part of the factional struggle".

Tabane said the resolution was "unnecessary" because he had not spoken on behalf of the party for weeks. He spoke on behalf of the general secretary of the party in the run-up to the party's aborted elective conference in May, but had not done so since.

Dexter said the CWC also discussed Cope's upcoming elective conference, meant to take place in September.

It was "all systems go", he said, although a date had not yet been finalised.

- SAPA