THE AFRICAN National Congress’s (ANC) response to breakaway members joining the new Congress of the People (Cope) has resembled apartheid-era intimidation, Cope’s interim chairman, Mosiuoa Lekota, said yesterday.
Addressing more than 3,500 delegates in Bloemfontein at Cope’s inaugural conference, the former South African defence minister, who defected from the ANC in late October to launch the splinter group, accused the ruling party of carrying out a witch hunt against former colleagues.
“Men and women with whom we worked and shared jokes now have to look the other way when we chance upon each other along the corridors of state buildings . . . they risk their jobs if they are seen to befriend us,” Mr Lekota told delegates.
When the creation of a new opposition party was first touted in October in the wake of the sacking of former South African president Thabo Mbeki by the ANC, senior ruling party members ridiculed the idea, saying it would be doomed to failure.
The ANC has dominated South Africa’s political landscape since the transition to democracy in 1994. It currently holds an absolute majority (69 per cent) in parliament; consequently, it has often been said that in reality the country operates as a one-party state.
However, since October hundreds of disillusioned ANC activists and officials have quit the party to join Cope, and the latter says it has registered almost 430,000 paid-up members from the public over the past six weeks.
Last Thursday Cope won its first electoral victories when it took 10 of the 27 seats in a byelection in the Western Cape province, seats previously held by ANC members who vacated their positions to join the breakaway movement. The ANC, which had held all 27 seats, lost all but three.
As yesterday’s proceedings unfolded, Mr Lekota, who was ANC chairman during Mr Mbeki’s presidency of the party, formally launched Cope’s challenge to the ANC for the 2009 elections.
“Let the people judge for themselves which leadership is deserving of their trust,” he said. “The people will never let us down.”
He told delegates one of the main reasons for the new party’s formation was because the ANC’s leadership had failed to ensure that South Africa realised the dream of a vibrant rainbow nation and that now it was a “country in despair”.
Mr Lekota added that one of Cope’s aims over the next few months would be to bring voters who had lost faith in democracy back to the polls for next year’s general election, likely to be held towards the end of March.
“Where many had lost the energy to go and register to vote, they declare that they are now on the comeback trail. The birth of the new party has sent a message to the outside world that South Africa would not become a one-party democracy,” Mr Lekota said.
“What doubts had begun to develop on the prospects of South African democracy have now been overtaken by a cautious optimism and confidence that here, unlike in many other countries, . . . exists a resilience sufficient to sustain the momentum of our promised future.”
The launch of Cope in Bloemfontein has sparked a political counter-offensive by the ANC in the Free State provincial capital that will bring current party leader Jacob Zuma to the city tomorrow to address a mass rally.
Cope interim general secretary Charlotte Lobe said the ANC event was clearly an attempt to disturb their party’s closing-day conference. “It is our view that we would not be derailed by any party . . . we refused to be bullied to submission,” she said.