Cope was formed in a gale of enthusiasm last December and was soon
claiming more than 500,000 members but quickly found its meetings
disrupted by ANC activists, often wielding knives, knobkerries (Zulu
clubs) and iron pipes.
In KwaZulu-Natal, with its solid Zulu support for Jacob Zuma, the ANC
leader, Cope leaders decided not to risk holding meetings. When its
chairman Mosiuoa Terror Lekota did hold a rally there, few dared
attend.
The ANC government has withdrawn the bodyguards to which Lekota, as a
former defence minister, was entitled. This followed the kidnapping and
beating of one of them. Lekota, 60, is challenging the decision in the
courts, saying: Every time I go to a mass meeting it is a dangerous
situation and the police are not adequate protection.
He has also accused ANC leaders, his former colleagues in government,
of thriving on political hate-speech and encouraging the hatred of and
the killing of Cope leaders.
Another alarming development is the use of veterans of the ANC's armed
wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) to mobilise support
for the ANC, though many of the young men in army fatigues claiming to
be veterans are too young to have played any part in the antiapartheid
struggle.
It has been announced that these war vets will be stationed around polling booths at election time.
The Times (UK)
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