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: 14:00:15 Posted By: Jan
By Andisiwe Makinana and Moshoeshoe Monare
While COPE delegates agreed to settle for Mosiuoa Lekota and Mbhazima Shilowa as president and deputy president respectively, the lobbying to find a woman as second deputy president is expected to be concluded on Monday.
Gauteng – which preferred Shilowa to head the organisation – finally compromised for their former premier to settle for the position of first deputy president, responsible for domestic affairs.
On the other hand, the Eastern Cape was, according to a senior executive leader of COPE, “blackmailing” the congress, pushing for former defence deputy minister, Mluleki George, to be in one of the top six positions “or else”.
But there has not been any concrete agreement on the name for the second deputy president, but delegates agreed it had to be a woman.
Some delegates want the present interim secretary-general, Charlotte Lobe, to be shifted to deputy president, responsible for foreign affairs, while others strongly wanted her to retain her current position.
Other provinces want to make their mark in the presidency by punting for their own candidates.
Western Cape delegates were last night lobbying among candidates for Cape Town businesswoman Hilda Ndude.
The initial names of former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and former public works minister Thoko Didiza seemed to have been shelved given that they were still, technically though, ANC members.
The names of former ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama, Lobe, former Cosatu president Willie Madisha, former communist leader Phillip Dexter and former DA politician Nick Koornhof are punted in the top 12.
The interim leadership, however, was not entertaining questions on the proposed names, saying the matter would be left up to the delegates today.
“A conference will decide on the matter and will make an announcement,” Shilowa told a press conference when asked about leadership.
Western Cape’s Mbulelo Ncedana said delegates had agreed to a consensus and would not vote on the leadership.
“We lobbied among provinces, and it will be an implementation of that decision from here,” he said. When it came to provinces, Ncedana said they had decided against an election of provincial structures before next year’s general elections.
He said this was because of the time constraint, as the focus would now have to be on campaigning for the election.
One of the mandates of the national leadership would be to establish provincial structures, which would then establish regional structures.
“That can be done after the elections, because to do that, you must have properly set-up branches, which don’t take less than 10 months to establish,” said Ncedana.
COPE is aiming for ward-based or voting district branches.
“Until those structures are set up, we will continue with the interim leadership structures,” Ncedana said.
Delegates are also expected to agree on the size of their national executive committee and other senior organs of the new party.
So far, delegates have pushed for 12 office bearers, 30 directly national executive committee members – to be called congress national committee – and four co-opted women with 16 ex officio members from the leagues and provincial structures.
COPE’s constitution – to be finalised on Tuesday – is expected to prescribe that a congress be held every three years.