The Congress of the People (Cope) has denied allegations that one of its members, Colleen Makhubele, who serves as council speaker in the City of Johannesburg, has been expelled.
This after a letter circulated on social media on Monday stating that the party’s leader, Mosiuoa Lekota, had terminated Makhubele’s membership.
The letter implies that Makhubele tarnished the reputation of the party by allegedly using Lekota’s signature to dismiss a council member in the City of Tshwane.
Reads the letter: “I [Lekota] condemn the behavior of Ms Colleen Makhubele about the letters with my signature to Tshwane municipal or the IEC [Independent Electoral Commission] and further in removing councillor in Tshwane using her signature as the speaker of Johannesburg.
“Her conduct [has] brought the organisation into disrepute and therefore her membership has been terminated with immediate effect from Congress of the People.”
Tom Mofokeng, Cope’s Gauteng provincial chairperson, subsequently released a statement in support of Makhubele, and said the letter is counterfeit and deceitful.
“We hereby confirm that the letter is fraudulent. The president of Cope has no knowledge of the letter and had neither sanctioned nor authorised its content to withdraw Cllr Colleen Makhubele as a councillor in the City of Johannesburg and the purported termination of her membership in Cope and representation in IEC.
“The fraudulent letter must be withdrawn with immediate effect,” said Mofokeng.
Speaking to Sunday World on Tuesday, Mofokeng confirmed that his statement is legitimate and that the contents contained are true.
Expelling Makhubele would be costly for Cope. If she were to be removed from her position as the speaker of in the City of Johannesburg, the party would lose a chance to maintain important positions in local governance, which has been a major objective for Cope.
Mofokeng said while Cope is still not aware of the identity of the perpetrator, the party has lodged a complaint with the Midrand police station and initiated a criminal investigation into the origin and authorship of the alleged fraudulent letter.
“Makhubele was definitely not fired. But we know that someone created a fake membership using Lekota’s name and distributed the letter to the IEC and the City of Johannesburg via e-mail.
“We do not know who that is yet, but we have opened a criminal case for a further probe into this matter,” said Mofokeng.
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