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Bloemfontein - The Congress of the People (Cope) has denied it's in financial distress, and has promised to be transparent about its finances.
But its interim deputy chairperson, Mbhazima Shilowa, has also called on business people to stand up to the ANC's "bullying" with a clear message that businesses are entitled to give money to any political party they choose to.
According to speculation in the media, Cope is experiencing severe cash flow issues and struggling to pay the R11m bill for its inaugural conference this week in Bloemfontein. Reports have alleged that pledges worth R30m have yet to come through.
But the party's interim leadership says there's "no crisis", although it faces challenges. The party has warned against "disinformation" deliberately spread by the ANC, and claims the ruling party is resorting to intimidation tactics to make sure Cope did not get off the ground.
Interim chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota has promised to make the party books open to the public, as soon as they have been audited. "Once we have done that (audit) we will make our finances known to the nation," said Lekota.
This means that the financial report to be tabled by interim treasurer general and businessperson, Hilda Ndude, will be in a closed conference session. Lekota says this is mainly because there has been no time to audit financial statements since the party was launched last eight weeks ago.
Lekota was also resolute that the party's R30 annual membership fee was not likely to be reduced, even if this made Cope the most expensive party to belong to. He said that the party was "not a rich party" and in a swipe at the ANC said Cope had "no billionaires", which meant it had to be driven by membership fees.
The former minister of defence drew a link between commitment to the party and finding R30 to belong to it, especially considering that "ordinary workers" were able to find much more money to belong to other organisations like soccer clubs, which also required members to pay every weekend for games.
"We are not going to buy support," said Lekota who added that Cope had not paid for delegates to arrive at the conference and was not going to bus people into the rally being planned for Tuesday.
- Fin24.com