By Caiphus Kgosana and Sibusiso Ngalwa
COPE suffered a double blow on Tuesday when two of its leaders - Lynda Odendaal and Simon Grindrod - resigned, with the latter accusing some party leaders of "ANC intolerance" and of idolising Thabo Mbeki.
Odendaal, until Tuesday the party's second deputy president, dropped the first bombshell, and the Cape Times later obtained a hard-hitting resignation letter from Grindrod, the party's former elections head.
Odendaal confirmed to the Cape Times that she had quit the troubled party.
"I've resigned from COPE. I've decided to move on and serve the people in another vehicle. I'm not moving out of politics, I'm going to take stock of the current political landscape and then take it from there," she said.
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However, she refused to give reasons for her departure, except to say that she will hold a press conference later this week to answer questions about her departure from COPE.
She didn't rule out the possibility of joining another political party.
"The doors are always open I'm sure. It's not necessarily that I'll be joining another party; there are many options," she said, adding that she had also resigned as an MP.
Grindrod said former ANC members were controlling COPE, to the exclusion of those who joined from other backgrounds.
"It now appears that COPE was, in the light of recent events, little more than an alternative vehicle for the entrenchment of key individuals who now seek to further what are ANC policies and processes by any other name," he said.
Grindrod's memo in June warned against the collapse of COPE due to infighting.
It was also leaked to the Cape Times.
He said there was no leadership effort to address COPE's problems.
"I am no longer confident that (the) leadership is either accountable or representative of the true needs and wishes of members," he said.
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