By Christelle Terreblanche and Caiphus Kgosana
The 2009 election campaign got off to a down and dirty start at the weekend in the Eastern Cape, with Congress of the People (COPE) on Sunday outrageously blasting ANC leader and businessman Tokyo Sexwale for accusing the breakaway party of using old women in witchcraft to trump up support.
Sexwale - who was speaking at the ANC rally 10km from the COPE manifesto launch in Port Elizabeth - was apparently referring to former president Thabo Mbeki's 92-year-old mother, Eppainette.
Nine defectors announced at the rally included ANC veteran and senior MP Makhosazana Njobe, as well as the sister of the late Steve Biko, Nobandile.
Speaking mainly in isiXhosa, Sexwale said: "Our mothers are taken, house to house, they are also paraded on TV, these people are performing witchcraft with our mothers... They are liars. You can't have respect for people who use older people in that fashion," he said.
His comments came as ANC president Jacob Zuma appealed to members to conduct a "disciplined" and "dignified" election campaign.
On Sunday, COPE expressed outrage at the remarks, accusing Sexwale of "disrespect" and eroding basic rights and "dignity" of the elderly and called on him to retract.
"The old women Sexwale refers to are veterans of the liberation movement who have left his party to join COPE," COPE's Women's Forum head, Kiki Rwexana, said.
"Likening senior citizens, who are women, to witchcraft at a political rally is downright irresponsible, dangerous and highly disrespectful of the elderly. History, including ours, is full of examples of women, particularly elderly women, falling victim to lynch mobs due to association with the so-called witchcraft," Rwexana said.
COPE also lashed out at an earlier statement by ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, suggesting that the woman who accused Zuma of rape in 2005 had "a good time" having sex with him.
The charges against Zuma were dismissed.
Rwexana accused Malema of "showing utter disdain" for his remarks about the rape accuser and called on the ANC to condemn it.
"The right to dignity is a constitutional right. An attack on this right, particularly to women, is an attack on all of humanity," Rwexana said.
At the COPE launch, Mbeki's shadow loomed large, with the estimated 30 000-strong crowd singing: "Thabo Mbeki is ours".
COPE president Mosiuoa Lekota's keynote address focused on the party's core promise to voters - that it will uphold the independence of the judiciary, the rule of law and the Constitution.
"None of us should be allowed to question verdicts of our courts without proper evidential foundation," Lekota stated.
"Government must act against those who flout this constitutional decree by taking the necessary remedial action."
First deputy president Mbhazima Shilowa highlighted COPE's key economic pledges, such as interventions to ensure jobs and higher growth as well as massive support to kick-start livelihoods in mostly rural provinces.
Among COPE's novel manifesto promises is a core commitment to "honest leadership" and a vow to reveal their sources of party funding and candidates' assets.