Cope Deputy President claims Lekota suspended him ‘for working too much’

Congress of the People (Cope) deputy president Willie Madisha claims party president Mosiuoa Lekota suspended him for overworking.

“They say we move around, we work too much and according to them, we are too fast. They wanted us to be a bit slow. “The way we are establishing the constitutional structures in all the provinces, in their understanding, is wrong but this was the resolution taken by the leadership of the organisation.”

According to Madisha, Cope’s constitution says if the president is unable to work, then his deputy should assume his responsibility.

Madisha said for the past two and a half months, he has not been home because of all the duties he has had to assume on behalf of Lekota and their late secretary-general.

“He is not well and I again have to do the work of the secretary-general. “For four days I am in parliament and for three days I am in Johannesburg at the office.

The old man is at home and he is asleep. We know that he must be given a chance to sleep because he is not well. We know that he is misled by some people like our former Gauteng chair to do what he is doing.”

Madisha said despite the fisticuffs experienced at a Cope press briefing on Wednesday, he is not a part of a faction and believes in rebuilding the organisation.

Lekota was due to address the media about his suspension on Sunday by Cope’s congress national committee (CNC) for allegedly dividing the party and his lack of energy and strength.

Lekota insisted he had not been suspended and there was no way he could be told by two or three people that he must resign from the party.

He said the group which suspended him on Monday was already suspended because they did not attend a meeting which he had called to choose a secretary-general.

Cope spokesperson Dennis Bloem said he could not be suspended by a non-constitutional committee because a person can only be suspended by a constitutional committee like the CNC.

He said Lekota remains the president of the party as his suspension is pending a disciplinary process. “We have not stripped him of his title as a president,” he said.

“We have said he must cease to perform his duties as the president. Madisha is doing the work of the president because he is the deputy president. “When a president is suspended, the deputy takes the duties of the president.

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