Amy Musgrave
4 November 2009
Johannesburg — IN ANOTHER sign that all is not well in the Congress of the People (COPE), Western Cape leader Allan Boesak resigned yesterday.
COPE, which was touted as the answer to SA's weak-opposition woes, has been suffering from increased internal tension and high-level resignations in recent months.
COPE, which was formed last year as a breakaway party from the ruling African National Congress (ANC), polled the third- highest tally of votes in April's general elections. Although the party's leadership has repeatedly said it would perform better in the 2011 local government elections, the internal strife is bound to take its toll.
Boesak, who also resigned from the Western Cape legislature, said yesterday that COPE had been characterised by faction fights, pitched battles for political supremacy and duplicity since its formation.
"At this point the party structures continue to be in disarray; many good people, hard workers in the party, are under suspension because they raised critical voices that (the) leadership in the Western Cape do not wish to be heard. Many others have resigned," he said.
COPE's former head of elections, Simon Grindrod , who was suspended earlier this year for calling the party "a great fraud", terminated his membership last week, saying he hoped the party's members were afforded an early opportunity to elect the leadership they so "desperately need to take the party forward in terms of accountability, democracy and transparency" .
Boesak said it appeared that the mud in which the party stood was rising and he did not want to subject himself or his family to "destructive politicking".
His resignation followed a scathing attack from the party's youth movement in the Western Cape, who accused the anti-apartheid cleric of not attending important party meetings and not paying an agreed contribution of 7% of his parliamentary remuneration as of May into the provincial coffers to assist with the running of the organisation.
COPE spokesman Philip Dexter described the allegations as "serious", saying they had been referred to the party's central working committee. Dexter said yesterday that Boesak's resignation was regrettable, but that the party obviously did not agree with his reasons for leaving.
Meanwhile, the leader of the ANC's task team for the Western Cape, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana , said Boesak would always be welcomed back to the ruling party.
"People of Allan Boesak's calibre do not belong to lost parties," he said.
Not long before Boesak joined COPE he was in discussions about rejoining the ANC , but these have collapsed. ANC sources said at the time the reason for the collapse was that Boesak would not accept a lesser post than that of ambassador to the United Nations.
Boesak said yesterday that he would return to civil society and his work on a "globalisation project" with churches in SA and Germany.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu welcomed Boesak back to "God's party", saying he never stopped telling him God had called him to be a pastor, a preacher, and a comforter of the afflicted.
"I cannot say how thrilled I am that Allan has followed this path and agreed to serve the people through God, rather than through political parties. Society is crying out for leadership; political office is not the sole measure of a leader," Tutu said.
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Neither Cope nor any other political party is free from internal strife. And certainly does not have any of the parties all the answers to the problems we face in South Africa. The only big news about this resignation of Boesak is that both he and Cope are better off without each other.