Johannesburg - The seemingly endless leadership squabbles paralysing Cope took a nasty turn on Monday when Mosiuoa Lekota kicked out of the party’s national committee meeting all senior members sympathetic to his rival Mbhazima Shilowa.
Lekota allegedly ordered nine of his senior officials out of the party’s all-important committee meeting in Kempton Park. This was despite a Johannesburg High Court ruling last month confirming that that the nine members were legitimate leaders of Cope.
Acting Judge Craig Watt-Pringle also reinstated Lekota as Cope’s legitimate president - ending the long-drawn-out leadership battle between Lekota and Shilowa.
Instead of ending the leadership impasse, the ruling appears to have precipitated a crisis paralysing the party.
Ndzipho Kalipa and Clara Sodlulashe-Motau were two of the members kicked out from the party congress’s national committee - the highest decision-making meeting. They were members of the Gauteng provincial legislature.
Another one was Hilda Ndude, the party’s former national treasurer.
Kalipa told The Star that he and other eight members were surprised when Lekota ordered them out of the meeting, saying they were not legitimate Cope members.
“We entered the meeting and Lekota stood up. He demanded that we leave his meeting. We explained that we were duly elected in Bloemfontein but he refused to accept our explanation,” Kalipa said.
He added: “Lekota had a different interpretation of the high court ruling. He said the court reinstated him as the sole leader of the organisation. He also claimed that we were not members of the congress national committee and therefore not welcome at that meeting.”
Kalipa said Lekota later ordered Smuts Ngonyama and Ntjetheng Matloko to talk to them and resolve the matter.
“Ngonyama and Matloko asked us to leave the premises and promised to give us a call later after they had discussed our concerns. They failed to do so.
“We are concerned about the unity of the party. Cope is moribund because of Lekota. He wants to make decisions on his own,” Kalipa said.
He accused Lekota of being in contempt of court.
“(Lekota) is supposed to comply with Judge Watt-Pringle but he refused.”
Earlier this year, the Western Cape High Court ordered Lekota to reinstate Ndude as an MP.
The decision was also upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Lekota denied kicking members out of the meeting. He was adamant that those who tried to attend the meeting were not members of the committee. He said some of them had resigned their membership and opted to pursue other ventures.
“I do not want to discuss individual cases. Kalipa is a different matter. There are a number of issues affecting his membership but I will not discuss that,” he said.
The Star