The Congress of the People (COPE) is reportedly having to close its Gauteng head office because of financial problems.
Staff at the party’s offices would also be retrenched and the party’s headquarters would be moved to Cape Town, according to News24.
Party spokesperson Dennis Bloem indicated that staff retrenched in Gauteng would be given the option of taking up jobs at the party’s new headquarters in the Western Cape.
COPE’s financial woes mirror its electoral woes. Launched to much fanfare in 2008, when senior figures split from the African National Congress (ANC) following Thabo Mbeki’s ousting as party leader in 2007, COPE did well in its first election in 2009.
In that election it won over 7% of the vote, and 30 seats, and was the official opposition in five of the nine provinces. However, infighting between its founders, particularly Mosiuoa Lekota and Mbhazima Shilowa, soon saw the party fall into disarray.
In 2014, despite the destruction of the Zuma years, the party won less than a percent of the vote, losing 27 of its 30 seats and failing to gain representation in six of the nine provinces (having been represented in each legislature in 2009).
In 2019, the party somehow survived, though it won only two seats in Parliament with 0.3% of the vote, and failed to secure any provincial representation at all.