COPE claimed Allan Boesak quit on Tuesday to avoid facing "grave" charges the party's youth wing had levelled at him a day earlier.
Had he not "jumped" on Tuesday, he would have probably been shown the door when COPE national committee met at the weekend, its interim provincial chairperson Mbulelo Ncedana said on Wednesday.
On Monday, COPE provincial youth wing alleged that Boesak was consistently absent from party meetings and the legislature. It also claimed he had not paid 7 percent of his parliamentary income to the party as agreed and deferred R15 000 of "personal" debt to the organisation.
"Our youth might have jumped the gun, but there's nothing factually wrong in what they said. These issues were often discussed within the organisation. The procedural flaws of the youth are something the organisation will deal with internally," Ncedana said.
In his resignation statement, Boesak said that youths' allegations had nothing to do with his leaving the party. He listed destructive politicking and pitched battles in party meetings among his reasons for quitting Cope.
But Ncedana said: "We don't for a minute believe that he was pushed, in fact he jumped. His lack of commitment to the organisation was worrying. He was just not available and did not add any value to the organisation, especially in the Western Cape. We've been extremely disappointed."
Boesak, who has since ducked the press, apparently tried to meet President Jacob Zuma in Cape Town recently. Zuma's spokesperson Zizi Kodwa confirmed Boesak's overtures and said a meeting would take place, but no date had been set.
"We'll have to consider the availability of the president as well as the availability of Mr Boesak. It will not be the first time the president and Mr Boesak meet. They met before the elections and before he (Boesak) went to Cope," Kodwa said.
Whether the meeting was about Boesak's return to the ANC, he said: "We would not want to pre-empt anything."
