It must have been the hardest thing for COPE’s leader Mosiuoa “Terror” Lekota to endorse Reverend Mvume Dandala as the party’s presidential candidate for the upcoming elections. Lekota, who started up COPE, is said to have been unhappy about the party’s decision to make Methodist bishop Dandala the face of its election campaign. At first it was a battle between Lekota and Shilowa for who would lead the party and Lekota got the vote as the party president. Then it was now a matter of deciding if the party president will also be the presidential candidate. Lekota must have thought that he will by default be the presidential candidate but it was not meant to be.
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It is now official, Reverend Mvume Dandala will be COPE’s (Congress of the People) presidential candidate in the upcoming general elections in South Africa this year. This announcement was made by COPE’s president, Terror Lekota, who many had thought would be the party’s presidential candidate. Dandala said he joined Cope to stand with men and women of integrity. “I’ve spent time fighting for peace and justice, I found those values in Cope,” said Dandala.

The race is on now to find out who will be the next president of South Africa. On one side we have Jacob Zuma, on the other hand there is Helen Zille for the DA and now Dandala for COPE. What a vast range of presidential candidates to pick from. No two are the same, if anything they are all very different and will appeal to certain people and not appeal to some. We have to continue watching this space to see how this all unravels.

According to reports, former president Nelson Mandela had a meeting with Julius Malema last weekend at the former Presidents Qunu home, near Umtata. This meeting took place the same weekend that Madiba made an appearance at an ANC rally. Former ANC Youth League leader, Fikile Mbalula who is thought to be one of the architects of getting Madiba to the ANC rally in the Eastern Cape, says that “Malema had not met Mandela before. When I introduced him as the president of the ANC Youth League, Madiba said: ‘Oh, this is the man who talks a lot and is very famous’.” Your guess is as good as mine as to what Mandela and Malema talked about. How I wish I was a fly on the wall in that meeting.
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It is reported that former President Nelson Mandela was whisked off to an ANC rally last week by his grandson, chief Mandla Mandela and former ANC Youth League leader Fikile Mbalula. Why are they making the 90 year old Mandela do all this? I had thought that Mandela had decided to stay away from active politics now and take a much deserved break but that looks like it is not the case after his appearance at the ANC rally in Idutywa, Eastern Cape. Some have come out and said Mandela was ‘forced’ to go but I do not believe that. Surely Mandela can not be forced to do something he does not want to do so this trip to the rally was his own free will.

President Kgalema Motlanthe announced today that the fourth democratic general election in South Africa will take place on 22 April this year. There had been suggestion that the general election might be delayed for weeks by a series of court cases on the voting rights of expatriates. Yesterday’s Pretoria High Court ruling, which effectively enfranchised all citizens living outside the country, and a pending court application was thought to possibly delay the announcement of the election date. But the president has spoken and the day is April 22.

We had heard about the possibility of this last year but now it sounds official according to reports in The Times. South Africans visiting the UK are now going to need visas in a bid to curb smugglers and terror suspects entering the UK. The British High Commissioner to South Africa, Paul Boateng, said the move will come into effect on March 3. But South Africans who have previously visited the UK on their current passports will be exempt until the middle of this year. It is understood that a UK visitor’s visa will cost £65 (R928). So now on top of your expensive air ticket, you are going to need to add another R928 in your travel budget, making it even more expensive to visit the UK.
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Could it be that former president Thabo Mbeki could be joining COPE? Your guess is as good as mine. Mbeki’s absence from the state of the nation address on Friday could have given us a hint that he maybe considering lending his support to COPE in the upcoming elections. In Mbeki not attending the state on the nation address, it could have been seen as a sign of him trying to distance himself away from the ruling party. I guess it is only a matter of time before we know where Mbeki’s alliance lies. Read the rest of this entry »