Former trade unionist Phillip Dexter has resigned from Cope and rejoined the ANC following his acrimonious divorce from the party in 2008.
Yesterday he said he had spent almost a year mulling over his future in Cope, as the party descended into chaos and “things had gone off the rails”.
Dexter acknowledged that Cope’s establishment had been a “misguided attempt” following the outcome of the ANC’s Polokwane conference in December 2007.
He had since become a Cope MP, its spokesman and a fierce critic of the ANC, and particularly President Jacob Zuma.
But yesterday, admitting Cope had failed to advance the programmes of the Freedom Charter, he said the ANC was the only organisation which could lead and advance a programme he could support.
Flanked by the ANC’s top Western Cape leaders, Marius Fransman and Songezo Mjongile, Dexter said: “The ANC represents the best interests of us all.
“With the 100th anniversary of the ANC upon us, I felt there was no better time to implement what I have believed in my own mind for a long time.”
He said he had left the ANC for Cope with good intentions but that the mission of the new party had failed.
“I joined Cope in the hope that we could defend the national democratic revolution and build non-racialism. I was profoundly mistaken,” said Dexter.
Cope descended into an “unparalleled chaos” of infighting, factionalism, maladministration and corruption.
He added that the issues he had with the ANC were not the fault of one person or a single group of people. Instead, Dexter said problems within the ruling party were created by “material conditions” in society, with the choices made by the ANC leadership contributing to these.
He said the ANC was not immune to these problems and that its problems could be overcome, a process to which he would like to contribute.
“Whatever the weaknesses the ANC suffers from, its strengths far outweigh these,” said Dexter.
After reading his statement, Dexter signed his ANC membership forms while posing for the cameras.
Fransman said Dexter’s return to the ANC was a gift to the party on the eve of its centenary.
He described Dexter as someone who had been “in the trenches”, from his time in the trade union movement.
But Dexter’s return to the ANC was part of a greater plan, said Fransman: “We’ve got a clear strategy, a clear programme to reconnect with communities, (and) Phillip will be utilised in the best way possible,” said Fransman.
Dexter acknowledged that his criticism of the ANC had been robust at times, but in rejoining the ANC, he hadn’t changed his views “on matters of principle”.
He said his criticism of Zuma, and the business interests of his family members, which he famously dubbed “ZEE”, was in response to a parliamentary question.
He said he believed that corruption was prevalent across South Africa, and not just in the ANC.
“Corruption exists. but what is the ANC going to do about it? I personally would like to be involved in fighting those things,” said Dexter.
