{"id":52359,"date":"2026-03-11T14:27:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T14:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=52359"},"modified":"2026-03-11T14:27:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T14:27:22","slug":"lekota-death-unites-anc-cope-years-after-polokwane-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/03\/11\/lekota-death-unites-anc-cope-years-after-polokwane-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Lekota&#8217;s death unites ANC and Cope years after controversial Polokwane conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>Lekota left the ANC because he believed Jacob Zuma and his faction will destroy the country. <\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>ANC first secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane says Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota belongs to the ANC despite him defecting in 2008 to form his own political party.<\/p>\n<p>Lekota left the ANC after the infamous 2007 Polokwane elective conference that saw former president Jacob Zuma emerge as the party\u2019s leader after former president Thabo Mbeki. He reportedly warned that the ANC under Zuma will collapse the country.<\/p>\n<p>The formation of Cope was the first and biggest ANC split in democratic times.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ: Cope founder Mosiuoa Lekota has died<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At his memorial service in Soweto on Wednesday, Mokonyane said that while Lekota\u2019s life was tied to different political movements, he had a long history with the ANC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are quite grateful for his contributions to the liberation struggle of our country. As the saying goes, history has no blank pages. He may be claimed to be a member of Cope, he may have come from the Black Consciousness Movement, but he also belongs to us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-cope-and-anc-work-together\">Cope and ANC work together<\/h2>\n<p>Mokonyane said the ANC was among the first to be told of Lekota\u2019s passing, something that he would have also wanted.<\/p>\n<p>Mokonyane said Cope, the ANC and the City of Johannesburg had worked together to ensure that the memorial service becomes a success.<\/p>\n<p>Mokonyane described Lekota as a principled person who believed in democracy and accountability.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe believed that leaders must speak honestly even when it is difficult and he believed in putting the interests of the people first,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Mokonyane thanked the Lekota family for sharing him with the rest of the country. She also thanked them for sharing him with the mass democratic movement and the ANC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs it has been properly defined that it is a struggle that we are pursuing, and contradictions will always emerge, but those contradictions will never undermine the role that he played as a member of the Black Consciousness Movement who found the ANC in prison, who came out and built the United Democratic Front,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-role-in-shaping-the-new-south-africa\">Role in shaping the new South Africa<\/h2>\n<p>Mokonyane said Lekota played a critical role before the establishment of a democratic state in 1994, participating in consultations and decision-making processes that shaped the transition to democracy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe worked tirelessly with us in the ANC on the ready to govern programme, he was among those who assisted in ensuring that we all work together and he also embraced the fact that we didn\u2019t take this country through arms, but through a negotiated settlement,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Mokonyane said that Lekota participated in various ANC conferences. She described him as been one with a strong opinion on political and organisational matters.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NOW READ: Lekota stood firm when others stayed silent <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p>Add The Citizen as a Preferred Source on Google and follow us on Google News to see more of our trusted reporting in Google News and Top Stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Lekotas #death #unites #ANC #Cope #years #controversial #Polokwane #conference<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lekota left the ANC because he believed Jacob Zuma and his faction will destroy the country. ANC first secretary-general Nomvula&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52361,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52359\/revisions\/52361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}