'They fired me because they could'- Makhubele closes Cope chapter to lead new alliance

Makhubele, as well as former Cope Tshwane chairperson Ofentse Moalusi, and the leaders of SARA’s member parties National Freedom Party, African Amalgamated Restorative Movement, the Independent Citizen Movement, and some faith-based organisations held a press briefing in Sandton on Wednesday.

The Johannesburg council speaker has accused Cope’s leader Mosiuoa Lekota of being disingenuous, saying he was instrumental in the formation of SARA.

“We were sitting here as presidents waiting for President Lekota to come to a meeting on Monday. He told us he was not feeling well, and that he had an urgent meeting in Kempton Park. I got calls from reporters to say that I was fired.

“I was not told, was not consulted, I was never given an opportunity to even make my representations. Because the journey that we took here was with President Lekota from the day.”

In its statement, Cope confirmed it had been in talks to form part of the alliance, but no final decision has been made.

Makhubele insists she was fired: “They fired me because I dared to believe that I can lead, and I can lead SARA and the nation of South Africa…Frankly, they fired me because they could, and they had the power to. These are men, and it’s a culture within our nation.”

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The alliance is an amalgamation of minority parties, but ICM’s Joe Mojapelo says this does not mean the parties will cease to exist.

“We deliberately came here with our own regalia so that you can see that ICM, AARM, NFP, and Change are alive and well because they exist for a reason and a particular ideology and constituency. However, we realized that we share a common interest,” said Mojapelo who is a councillor in Ekurhuleni.

The NFP’s Canaan Mdletshe says while some may think this move rings the death knell for his party, this was not the case.

“When KaMagwaza-Msibi established the party in 2011 she had a dream of building a South Africa that collaborates and brings together the different nations of this country.

 Therefore, when the opportunity came for us to be part of SARA we said we’d not miss the opportunity because it gives us the platform to work with like-minded political parties.

He said the working relationship with the African National Congress in the Zululand and Nongoma district municipalities will continue until 2026.

NO MORE ‘WASTED VOTES’

SARA’s president says voters must expect to see the alliance on ballot papers next year, instead of the individual parties. She says the alliance has begun the process of making their submissions to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

However, by Wednesday afternoon the IEC said it did not have the official documents of SARA 'at the moment'. 

With over 200 political parties expected to contest the 2024 general elections, Mojapelo says the decision to contest under one umbrella would ensure no vote goes to waste.

“2019 elections were contested by 48 parties, how many of those are in Parliament? Fourteen. What happened to the 24? They didn’t live to tell the story, and at a huge cost, 300,009 wasted votes. If you take the quota and divide by those votes, that’s eight seats in Parliament went to waste.

“I feel sorry for those people who voted for those parties because their votes were wasted, and that’s to the advantage of the bigger parties and preserving the status quo.”

Meanwhile, Makhubele says they are still canvasing other political formations such as Build One South Africa to join SARA and will announce their plans and policies in the first week of December.

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