The ANC is 'doing COPE's publicity work'
Who needs Mbhazima Shilowa and "Terror" Lekota when the Congress of the People has Jacob Zuma and Julius Malema?
Indeed, COPE, the new political party in our midst, is not doing too badly for a new political baby and they owe a lot of their success to the generosity of the ANC.
It is understandable that the ANC, which has clearly been stung by the actions of those who have left the party and formed COPE, should respond in some form or another to the political threat.
However, to devote almost your entire speaking engagements to speaking ill of your enemies is to show that not only are you concerned about them, but that you might very well live in fear of them.
With every step that the ANC has taken, every word uttered and every action undertaken, the ANC has worked for and campaigned for its enemy.
The campaigner-in-chief for COPE within the ANC is the ANC Youth League president, Julius Malema.
People can be forgiven for believing that Malema is in fact a COPE plant within the ANC - a mole whose sole purpose is to pretend to be virulently opposed to the new political formation, but to drive people away from the ANC into the hands of the new political grouping with his words and actions.
With almost every word that he utters, Malema says things that makes South Africans, particularly the young ones he is supposed to lead, want nothing to do with him or the organisation he represents.
Don't even mention young people; some first-time voters would refuse having Malema, who clearly suffers from a chronic political "foot in mouth" ailment, speak on their behalf.
There are also adults within the ANC members who will not even contemplate deserting the ruling party, even after it humiliated Thabo Mbeki in the manner it did after Polokoane, but who will have great difficulty in belonging to the same organisation as Malema.
Very few, too few of these adults, speak out.
One of those who have correctly spoken out against un-ANC tendencies generally and Malema's conduct specifically is social welfare minister Zola Skweyiya.
The ANC deputy president and our head of state, Kgalema Motlanthe, has also been brave enough to stand up for what he believes is right.
It's just a matter of time, but the ANC will soon realise the extent of the damage Malema has inflicted on the former liberation movement. Let's hope it's not too late.
In his defence, Malema is not the only culprit.
ANC President Jacob Zuma, Malema's political father, is also guilty of the same. He spends too little time talking about the ANC and why people should vote for the ANC.
The majority of the time he has spent on the road, ostensibly to sell the ANC to the voters, has been spent spreading the word about COPE.
Granted, he does not speak about COPE in glorious terms. He calls them names. However, he may call them derogatory names such as snakes, donkeys and so on, but he spends a huge and inordinate amount of time talking about the enemy.
Ordinary ANC members have not been left out. The leaders have led by example and the masses are following suit.
They are out there in their numbers, disrupting Cope meetings, intimidating those who have left the ANC and sabotaging activities of the new party.
All of these things must give rise to some questions in the minds of South Africans.
Among these questions are: if this new party is not a threat to the ANC, why is the ruling party spending so much time trying to paint it black?
What is it that ANC members do not want potential voters to hear by disrupting meetings and stopping some of them from happening?
Don't even mention the ill-advised move by the ANC to challenge the name of this new party.
In a world that is fair and just, I don't see how a court of law can stop Shilowa and Lekota from using the name they have chosen.
If they are stopped, then other political parties, with similar but not the same names, would be forced to change their names.
Zuma said this week that allowing the new party to be called the Congress of the People would be like cutting a piece of the ANC's body.
Well, the ANC president should wake up and smell the coffee. Cope has already taken a part of the ANC's body.
Granted, the new party has - as expected - some teething problems.
They have a lot of work to do in convincing South Africans to vote for them.
However, the most unusual thing is that it is not only Shilowa and Lekota who are toiling 24/7 to build the party.
Some ANC leaders, blinded by political hatred, are doing the hard work for them.
