The Congress of the People’s (COPE’s) newly chosen presidential candidate Mvume Dandala on Wednesday made his first public speech since receiving the party’s nomination. And already one of the biggest issues he has had to address is whether he is a compromise candidate who was picked because of a leadership struggle between the party’s president, Mosiuoa Lekota, and his deputy, Mbhazima Shilowa. He of course denied that a breach existed at the top of the party. But then again, what else was he going to do? Proclaim that before the party’s first election the so-called Shikota pairing was tearing the party asunder in an Mbeki-Zuma-style feud?
Choosing dandala might not represent a conscious attempt to compromise, and there may well be no division between COPE’s two driving figures. But it is a bit unorthodox by the standard of South African politics that neither of the two will be standing for the presidency.
