It’s impossible for Cope to truly cope

It is impossible nowadays for the Congress of the People (Cope) to truly cope. It is immensely overwhelmed by the generosity of it’s political opponents.

To start with, how do people feel comfortable when given a position of such huge responsibilities and power, knowing very well they don’t deserve it, nor have the acquired the requisite mandate to exercise that?

Cope in Johannesburg only got 0.003% of the vote, according to it’s representative who is now the speaker of the City of Joburg, and in the City of Tshwane it only had one seat, which has now become Tshwane mayor.

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The effects of this arrangement between party leaders is that the mandate given to them by the voters has been put on the stock market. The mandate of the voters has become a commodity with which to make profit for the leaders, to the exclusion of the electorate.

Suddenly, the party that got no mandate to run the affairs of the community, gets it by trading with the party that has been given that mandate. This is a betrayal of the confidence the voters have placed in their respective political parties.

In the fullness of time, we will realise this has absolutely nothing to do with the interests of the voters, but the selfish interests of those who have used your mandate to trade at the stock market.

What makes one think that those who have an overwhelming percentage above Cope can suddenly be so generous to “hand over” power they earned through support at the polls to you, without determining your role and controlling your thinking?

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To those who remember how the homeland system worked, it is exactly the same. The homeland leaders believed they had power, only to realise they didn’t. Their power was determined by the apartheid system. In fact, the apartheid system had all the power. They were merely stooges to be their messengers and to do the work on behalf of their masters in Pretoria.

To this, Steve Biko taught us that “there can never be any true outcome out of any negotiations among unequals”. Biko argued that, “for us to negotiate successfully, we have no other choice but to do so from a position of strength”.

It then stands to reason that Cope in both Johannesburg and Tshwane may well end up being conduits to facilitate what other parties wouldn’t want to be seen doing. When we finally unravel their game plan, it will be Cope that will serve as cannon fodder.

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The question is whether Cope is doing this out of true concern to serve, or is it about the short-term and quick benefit to its individual members?

This arrangement doesn’t make any sense. You cannot be a minute minority and preside over the overwhelming majority. The phrase stock brokers use in their trade is: “Buy low sell high.”

So it is highly probable Cope was bought low but may become profitable to its investors in a not too distant future. If the investment doesn’t grow, it will dispensed of. Just thinking while it is still legal.

-Monama is an independent commentator and a former Azapo leader.