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 Who's who in COPE's top structure
    December 17 2008 at 06:02AM Get IOL on your
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By Fiona Forde

Mosiuoa Lekota

Mosiuoa "Terror" Lekota has been appointed the new president of COPE. The 60-year-old is no stranger to politics.

Born in the Free State, Lekota became involved in student politics and the Black Consciousness Movement in his days at the University of the North, landing him an eight-year prison sentence on Robben Island.

On his release in 1982 he joined the United Democratic Front, but in the mid-1980s was sentenced during the Delmas Treason Trial.

In 1990 he began to focus his energies on the ANC. He was elected to the executive after the party was unbanned and was later national chairperson for two consecutive terms.
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He joined the government as defence minister in 1999 and resigned from the cabinet in September soon after Thabo Mbeki was ousted.


Mbhazima Shilowa

One of Mosiuoa Lekota's two deputy presidents is Mbhazima Shilowa, who was the premier of Gauteng until September.

Like Lekota, he has a long history with the ANC, but his roots are in the labour movement. He joined the Transport and General Workers' Union in the early 1980s, later becoming the union's vice-president and then its president.

Shilowa helped to form Cosatu in
1985, and became its general secretary in 1993.

He played a prominent role in the Codesa negotiations in 1992. He became a member of the ANC's national executive committee in 1997, and was appointed premier of Gauteng in 1999.

He resigned from that position in protest over the ANC's recall of Thabo Mbeki as president.

Lynda Odendaal

Little is known about the second deputy president Lynda Odendaal, who is making her political debut with COPE.

Born in the Eastern Cape, 44-year-old Odendaal now lives in Gauteng, where she joined the Shikota movement when it was formed two months ago.

A successful businesswoman and entrepreneur, she is a recognised name in the computer industry.

Charlotte Lobe

Charlotte Lobe has been returned to the position of secretary-general, a position she held during the interim leadership established last month.

Lobe resigned from the ANC earlier this year - at the time, she was serving on the ruling party's national executive committee.

Earlier this year, she resigned from her post as provincial secretary of the Free State in protest at how, she said, the new ANC leadership were handling the organisation.

She was previously spokesperson for the ANC Women's League.

Lobe was the first woman to join what first became known as the Shikota movement, later named COPE.

Deirdre Carter

Less still is known about Deirdre Carter, who has been named the deputy secretary-general.

Carter joined COPE in KwaZulu Natal and has been active in garnering support for the new party.

Hilda Ndude

Hilda Ndude has been returned as treasurer, a position she held in the interim management. A former UDF activist in the Western Cape, Ndude later served on the ANC's Western Cape executive.

She retired form politics in 1998 to go into business, believing that "we had done what we set out to do", but has since decided she would be "failing the nation" if she didn't get involved again.

Lyndall Shope-Mafole

Lyndall Shope-Mafole, the daughter of struggle veteran Gertrude Shope, will head the party's international affairs portfolio - familiar territory for the woman who once was deputy chair and secretary for international affairs in the ANC Youth League.

Currently communications director-general, she was elected to the ANC's national executive committee in Polokwane last December.

She recently resigned from the ruling party and its NEC.

Smuts Ngonyama

Former ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama is COPE's head of policy.

A former head of the ANC presidency, the 56-year-old Ngonyama served on the party's executive from 1994, until he lost his seat in Polokwane last December.

The longtime ally of Thabo Mbeki is currently helping to launch the Thabo Mbeki Leadership Institute.

Ngonyama failed in a bid to become COPE's national chairperson, a position the draft constitution did not provide for.

Mluleki George

Former deputy defence minister and COPE co-founder Mluleki George will take on the position of national organiser.

George resigned from the government in the wake of Mbeki's recall and immediately set about rallying support for the Shikota movement in the Eastern Cape, the province with the largest number of COPE members so far.

Mlungisi Hlongwane

Mlungisi Hlongwane, a former president of the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco), and mayor of the Sedibeng municipality, is COPE's elections convener.

A long-time ANC member, he resigned from the party last month.

Phillip Dexter

Former SA Communist Party treasurer-general Phillip Dexter will head COPE's media division, a position he also held during the interim arrangement.

The 46-year-old former antiapartheid activist has served time in Cosatu, parliament, and the SACP (from which he was ousted for criticising what he called general secretary Blade Nzimande's Stalinist approach and for supporting Willie Madisha during the missing money saga).

Zahira Ebrahim

Zahira Ebrahim, the daughter of Pan Africanist Congress veteran Gora Ebrahim and niece of Jacob Zuma ally Ebrahim Ebrahim, has been appointed to head up sectors.

Ebrahim came to light during Shikota's convention last month as a guest speaker when she expressed concerns about the direction in which the country was headed.

    • This article was originally published on page 6 of The Star on December 17, 2008
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