Just months before the upcoming local government elections in August, several Congress of the People (COPE) councillors have been axed.
They are suspected of being “double agents” working for other parties because they allegedly failed to show their loyalty to COPE by signing a loyalty pledge.
The 10 COPE councillors from across three Eastern Cape municipalities were recently told their services were no longer needed after they allegedly failed to sign the declaration forms committing their loyalty to the party ahead of the August elections.
Their axing comes after the party instructed all its councillors and national leaders to sign a form confirming they were not linked to any other political party and would not leave the organisation after the elections.
Of the 10 affected councillors, four are believed to be based at Mnquma local municipality, four in Mbhashe and two in Amahlathi municipality.
This was confirmed yesterday by the party’s national general secretary Lyndall Shope-Mafole who said there were suspicions within party ranks that the affected councillors were “working closely” with other political parties.
Shope-Mafole added that the group was removed after rumours surfaced they were allegedly waiting for their term of office to end in August before they jumped ship and abandoned their political home for another party.
“According to the party’s constitution, if your name appears on a candidates’ list of another party, or you plan to stand as an independent candidate in areas where COPE would also be contesting, then you are automatically dismissed from the party.
“We said should people not respond by a certain deadline, it would be safely assumed that they refuse to sign the commitment forms and thus are automatically expelling themselves from the party,” Shope-Mafole said.
She added that letters to affected municipalities had already been delivered and that such councillors were axed from the party “with immediate effect”.
“We can’t have a situation where our members belong to two political parties.
“We have experienced a situation in the last elections where our members worked for other political parties while being paid on our ticket. We cannot have a repeat of that,” she said.
Asked if those expelled councillors would be replaced before the August elections, Shope-Mafole said they would replace them if such an opportunity presented itself.
“However if it does not happen, we would rather stay without councillors in those areas than keeping people who are double agents,” she said.
Attempts to obtain the identities of the affected councillors proved fruitless at the time of writing yesterday.
COPE’s fear of councillors as ‘double agents’
They are suspected of being “double agents” working for other parties because they allegedly failed to show their loyalty to COPE by signing a loyalty pledge.
The 10 COPE councillors from across three Eastern Cape municipalities were recently told their services were no longer needed after they allegedly failed to sign the declaration forms committing their loyalty to the party ahead of the August elections.
Their axing comes after the party instructed all its councillors and national leaders to sign a form confirming they were not linked to any other political party and would not leave the organisation after the elections.
Of the 10 affected councillors, four are believed to be based at Mnquma local municipality, four in Mbhashe and two in Amahlathi municipality.
This was confirmed yesterday by the party’s national general secretary Lyndall Shope-Mafole who said there were suspicions within party ranks that the affected councillors were “working closely” with other political parties.
Shope-Mafole added that the group was removed after rumours surfaced they were allegedly waiting for their term of office to end in August before they jumped ship and abandoned their political home for another party.
“According to the party’s constitution, if your name appears on a candidates’ list of another party, or you plan to stand as an independent candidate in areas where COPE would also be contesting, then you are automatically dismissed from the party.
“We said should people not respond by a certain deadline, it would be safely assumed that they refuse to sign the commitment forms and thus are automatically expelling themselves from the party,” Shope-Mafole said.
She added that letters to affected municipalities had already been delivered and that such councillors were axed from the party “with immediate effect”.
“We can’t have a situation where our members belong to two political parties.
“We have experienced a situation in the last elections where our members worked for other political parties while being paid on our ticket. We cannot have a repeat of that,” she said.
Asked if those expelled councillors would be replaced before the August elections, Shope-Mafole said they would replace them if such an opportunity presented itself.
“However if it does not happen, we would rather stay without councillors in those areas than keeping people who are double agents,” she said.
Attempts to obtain the identities of the affected councillors proved fruitless at the time of writing yesterday.
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