Post-1994 politics:
Cosatu General Secretary 1993–1999
Premier of Gauteng Province 1999–2008
Interesting fact: Credited with instigating Gauteng’s Gautrain project, which was initially dubbed the ‘Shilowa Express’.
Other: After moving to Johannesburg in 1979 Shilowa briefly worked as a security guard at The Star newspaper offices. Decades later, as premier of Gauteng, he became famous for always wearing red socks. Nowadays hangs out in fancy restaurants, and is rumoured to have expensive tastes in wine.
Lynda Odendaal, briefly Cope second deputy president
Born: 23 September 1964
Political history: None
Professional background: Appointed chief executive officer of Network Support Services, an IT service management solutions company, in 2005
Interesting fact: Stands a mere 1.5m tall, but what she lacks in height she makes up for in vigour.
Other: As a businesswoman, she offered Cope office space during the election campaign. She was a volunteer at the party’s founding conference in Bloemfontein and was busy working on the delegate database when, to her great surprise, her name was announced as a party leader.
Juli Kilian, Cope’s National Party Liaison Committee representative to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC)
Born: 31 July 1952
Political history:
Started as a National Party (NP) volunteer in the 1980s, and later became an NP election campaign manager
Served on the Johannesburg City Council 1991–1994
Member of the Gauteng provincial legislature 1994–2004
Briefly joined the Democratic Alliance (DA) after the NP dissolved, before becoming involved with Cope
Interesting fact: Juli is a real elections guru, the kind who can quote legislative clauses off the cuff. She has an insider contact in every political party and at every news desk around the country.
Other: She is also a closet landscape architect and, despite having mastered the double-click, suffers from occasional bouts of technophobia.
Johan Kilian, Cope’s election manager
Born: 17 June 1942
Political history:
National Party youth leader 1964–1974
Served in various positions in the NP over the following three decades, eventually becoming a National Executive Council member
Administrator of Vaal Triangle townships, including Sebokeng, Bophelong, Sharpeville and Boipatong, during the transition years
Provincial leader of New NP in Gauteng 1997–2004
Member of the Gauteng provincial legislature 1994–2004
Interesting fact: Johan’s involvement in politics dates back further into the past than most history books care to delve. He has been around forever and there isn’t a predicament on earth for which he does not have an anecdote, usually from his National Party days. He is proud of his Afrikaner heritage without harbouring any bitterness about the new South Africa.
Other: Married to Juli Kilian. Johan is as much an extension of Juli as she is of him; they are a formidable team.
Moeketsi Mosola, Cope’s chairman of the National Elections Task Team
Born: 23 May 1963
Political history:
Spent most of his life in the United States after going there to study
Returned to South Africa after democratisation and became CEO of SA Tourism (2004–2009)
Interesting fact: Moeketsi is the ultimate boss to work for. He is to the point, decisive and goal-orientated. He likes a glass of whiskey and has a passion for sport.
Mvume Dandala, Cope’s 2009 presidential candidate
Born: 26 October 1951
Professional background:
Limited early-life political involvement, e.g. serving as the local chairman of the South African Student Organisation (SASO) at the Federal Theological Seminary in Alice
Former presiding bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, and a former head of the All Africa Council of Churches
Interesting fact: Dandala has the friendliest smile in the business. He has a mischievous way of looking at you over his glasses as if you’ve been friends for years.
‘The one thing you can say without hesitation is that we
are united on the basis that the national Constitution as it stands today
must be defended and democracy must be deepened.’
– Mosiuoa Lekota, November 2008
‘Why struggle if you can Cope?’
– Mbhazima Shilowa, February 2009
Introduction
On 12 December 2008 the North Gauteng High Court ruled that the phrase ‘Congress of the People’ did not belong to the governing African National Congress (ANC). This ruling enabled a new political formation that had been ruffling feathers in South African politics for a few months to call itself by that name.
A month later, a further objection against the registration of the acronym ‘Cope’ by the Cape Party was dismissed by the Electoral Commission and later also the Electoral Court. Thus, after several months of being a nameless movement, the breakaway faction from the ANC finally acquired a name. The Congress of the People entered my life when it was still a nameless movement. The date was 1 November 2008 and the place the Sandton Convention Centre.
But I was a bit of a Johnny-come-lately: According to the founders of the party, the seed for the formation of a new political party had already been planted shortly after the ANC’s Polokwane conference in December 2007, where Jacob Zuma replaced Thabo Mbeki as president of the ruling party. Mbeki supporters believed that Zuma’s populist rhetoric and his blemished past rendered him unfit to lead the party, and also that his supporters’ lack of discipline was an ominous sign of what the ANC could become if Zuma was elected President. They also felt that Mbeki was treated unfairly at the conference and that the electoral process was rigged. Most of the Mbeki supporters who held prominent positions in the party were voted out and several others resigned.
Following Zuma’s victory after a carefully coordinated campaign for the leadership of the ANC, the ruling party, and ultimately the country, was expected to change
