A group of disgruntled Congress of the People (Cope) members have disrupted a press conference held by the party’s suspended president Mosiuoa Lekota.
Cope members physically attacked each other during the press conference in Kempton Park, east of Johannesburg.
Lekota on Wednesday was meant to address the media about his suspension on Sunday by Cope’s congress national committee (CNC) for allegedly dividing the party and “lack of energy and strength” due to his ill health.
The CNC is the party’s highest decision-making body in between congresses.
The divisions within Cope quickly escalated into a series of back-to-back suspensions.
This after Cope’s national chairperson Teboho Loate announced that Lekota remained the party’s leader and had the “confidence and full support” of the CNC.
Loate said the decision to suspend Lekota was a “hasty and desperate attempt” by the party’s deputy president Willie Madisha, secretary for elections Mzwandile Hleko and national spokesperson Dennis Bloem, who were apparently suspended from Cope.
During Wednesday’s briefing, a group of angry Cope members stormed the press conference accusing Lekota and his supporters of preventing them from attending the briefing.
They claimed that Lekota remained suspended as the party’s leader and accused him of being factional.
Earlier before the briefing was disrupted, Lekota claimed that he remained the president of Cope.
He also revealed that he had been ill for a while after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
“Maybe I should take you into confidence and share with you that I had an attack of prostate cancer,” Lekota said.
“If I look a little bit on the smaller side than what you are used to, it’s simply because in the course of trying to recover from this, I lost quite a bit of weight. But also because I am very physically active.”
This is a developing story. More to follow.
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