Cope Youth invite Ramphele to the party

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

Activist turned businesswoman Mamphela Ramphele File photo: Sharon Seretlo

Johannesburg - Cope's Youth Movement on Sunday invited Mamphele Ramphele to join its party.

“Congress of the People is a political home for everyone, even people like Mamphele Ramphele and others are more than welcomed (sic) to join Cope,” the youth division's leadership said in a statement.

Ramphele, an anti-apartheid activist and businesswoman, recently launched what she termed a “party political platform” called Agang SA (Setswana for “build South Africa”).

She intends using it to contest the 2014 national elections.

Cope's youth division also called for its bickering leaders, Mosiuoa Lekota and Mbhazima Shilowa, to stop fighting in court.

The party's youth were very concerned about its future.

“We have seen Cope in and out of courts not for the future of (the) organisation but for personal hatred to each other.”

Almost since its inception, Cope had been split into factions supporting either Lekota or Shilowa.

Cope Youth Movement secretary-general Abel Ranganta said the court case to determine the leadership of the party had been going on since 2010 at the High Court in Johannesburg. He said the last hearings were in February and the case had been postponed to April.

Ranganta said the Lekota faction claimed enough evidence was before the court for the judge to make a decision, while the Shilowa camp wanted to continue with arguments.

Ranganta said the party's youth called on the two leaders to end their “political stand-off”. - Sapa