Mosiuoa Lekota, leader of the Congress of the People (COPE), intends to retire and step down from active politics after the May 29 polls after nearly two decades at the helm of the opposition party.
The party was launched in December 2008 after a break away from the governing ANC. It was formed by ANC members who were disgruntled by the outcome of the Polokwane conference where former president Thabo Mbeki lost to former president Jacob Zuma.
Lekota, a former political prisoner and former ANC chair who quit as defence minister when Mbeki was forced out as president of the ANC, said his decision to retire was due to his ill health and advanced age.
“At my age I would like to take a rest and it doesn’t matter what I think of myself. The very fact that some of the people think that I am going to die any time means it is time that I must give way and give the reins of leadership to someone else,” he told Business Day.
The party received more than 1.3-million votes or 7.42% of the national vote when it first contested elections in 2009. However, it has since lost a large portion of it supporters due to a bruising leadership battle between Lekota and his former deputy Mbhazima Shilowa.
COPE’s support further declined in 2019 where it received 0.27%, translating to two seats in parliament, down from the 0.67% it received in the 2014 elections. This is partly due to another ANC breakaway party, the EFF entering the political arena during the 2014 elections.
More recently, Lekota had been facing internal calls to vacate his position as leader of the party. These calls were led by its former deputy president, Willie Madisha, and former communications head Dennis Bloem.
Madisha was expelled from the party in July 2023. Former speaker of Johannesburg, Colleen Makhubele, was expelled from COPE in November 2023 after joining a new coalition without the party’s approval.
The party’s downward trajectory has continued with COPE now occupying only two seats in parliament, one of which is filled by Lekota and the other by chair Teboho Loate.
The party’s membership now sits at 30,000. Its next elective conference is scheduled for after the national and provincial elections.
Lekota partly blames the ANC for COPE’s decline saying that from its inception, the governing party sent people to infiltrate it.
“There were people that were sent to come into and sabotage the Congress of the People... Some of those who did that kind of work found their way back to the ANC and some of them got deployed to missions abroad,” he said.
“There’s no point now in crying over spilt milk.”
Lekota, however, remained hopeful that COPE would claw back from its electoral losses during the upcoming elections.
“I think we are going to perform much better in the upcoming elections and after elections whoever is elected must really respect the membership of the party,” he said, adding that he would remain a party member.
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