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: 2008-12-16 Time: 05:00:09 Posted By: Jan
By Fiona Forde, Moshoeshoe Monare and Gaye Davis
After marathon meetings through the night, the Congress of the People (COPE) has opted for Mosiuoa Lekota as president, with Mbhazima Shilowa his deputy.
And it has emerged that COPE leaders were this morning talking to a political unknown, KwaZulu-Natal entrepreneur Linda Odendaal, for the post as second deputy president.
By 7am on Tuesday, COPE had still not secured the second deputy, forcing leaders to work the phones at the eleventh hour to find the right person to fit the progressive image it is seeking.
Odendaal’s name emerged as the party tried to kill four birds with the one stone: a white woman who carries no ANC baggage and hails from a region where COPE desperately needs to make inroads.
Just hours before presenting her name to the plenary session, and the noon address of the new leadership at an inaugural rally at the Free State Cricket Stadium, COPE’s leadership was still in talks with Odendaal, whose name popped up only after a string of other women declined to step up. However, provinces could overturn the leadership’s proposal at the plenary.
Former ANC leader Charlotte Lobe and former deputy defence minister Mluleki George were retained as secretary-general and organiser respectively to appease their restless provinces. Hilda Ndude was retained as treasurer.
Former unionist Willie Madisha was selected to head the sectors, while Deirdre Carter is deputy secretary-general and former ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama will head policy.
Former communist leader Phillip Dexter will be retained as head of media and Shope Mafole heads international affairs.
An eleventh hour proposal to name Ngonyama as COPE’s national chairman was shot down by a majority of the steering committee.
Some said this would have suggested entitlement at the top “which would have sent out the wrong message”, according to one source, while others felt it was “too much old ANC” at the top.