WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-12-15 Time: 06:00:10 Posted By: Jan
By Fiona Forde and Gaye Davis
Questions have been raised about the state of the Congress of the People’s finances on the eve of its launch rally in Bloemfontein on Tuesday, with highly placed party sources claiming that COPE is in desperate financial straits.
However, the organisation’s leadership on Monday denied it was in crisis.
The Cape Argus was told that during a meeting to discuss the organisation’s financial report on Sunday night, it had emerged that the party was in credit to the tune of R1-million – but pledges amounting to around R30-million had not yet materialised, precipitating a cash-flow crisis.
It was also alleged that there were insufficient funds in the party’s coffers to foot the transport bill for Tuesday’s rally, where organisers are hoping for 10 000 people.
According to the same sources, a proposal to relocate the rally from the Botshabelo Stadium to the hall at the University of the Free State, where COPE’s inaugural congress is under way, was shot down by a majority of the leadership, who felt it would damage perceptions of the party as it was starting out.
“The only way I can explain it is a total lack of capacity on our part to follow through with the pledges, because the goodwill was definitely there,” said a source.
“But we didn’t follow through.”
But both COPE interim deputy chairperson Mbhazima Shilowa and interim treasurer-general Hilda Ndude categorically denied the claims when interviewed separately on Monday morning.
Shilowa said that while the party could not become complacent about funding, there was no cash-flow crisis – adding that “between 70 percent and 80 percent” of overall funding came from goodwill gestures, with business offering free services or paying some of the party’s bills, and sponsorships, rather than direct donations.
Shilowa said the party’s national convention in Sandton in October, which carried a price tag of just under R5-million, had already been paid for, and there were no problems about footing the bill either for the current congress or Tuesday’s rally.
Ndude also denied there was a financial crisis – but conceded there were “challenges”, mostly related to the short amount of time the party has had to get up and running.
“This congress was organised in six weeks. There’s no way you can raise R11-million in that time. We do have financial challenges, but there’s no crisis.”
Ndude dismissed the claims that Tuesday’s rally was in jeopardy.
She said delegates to the conference would be ferried to the Botshabelo Stadium in the buses that had brought them to Bloemfontein.
“There was a logistics issue because the ANC block-booked all the buses – but that is not going to deter us, and it has nothing to do with money.”
ANC president Jacob Zuma will be addressing a major rally in the Bloemfontein on Tuesday marking the 47th aniversary of the MK Veterans’ Association.
But the Cape Argus has established that the financial report to be put before COPE delegates during a closed session today (Monday) does not contain any statement detailing the amount of money raised or stating how much cash it has in its coffers.
Instead it deals only with financial policy and strategies.
The conflicting accounts could be explained by the leadership’s reluctance to openly declare the state of the party’s finances – or could also be linked to internal tensions over who should lead the party, with interim chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota and Shilowa both being pushed for the top job by their own supporters.
However, if true, the allegations paint a very different picture of COPE as a party made up of an affluent elite with access to deep BEE pockets.