This article is about the South African political party, the Congress of the People (COPE).
Despite the funny name in an internet context, this is actually a real party and an important one to know about if you want to understand South Africa’s recent history.
People always ask why South Africans continued to vote ANC during the years of gross corruption and why there wasn’t a fightback campaign within the ANC. But there was. COPE was formed by disgruntled ANC members who opposed the direction the country took under Zuma.
By the standards of proportional representation, they did really well in their first outing. They came third, with half the votes of the DA. The ANC was still such a behemoth, that these numbers didn’t translate to governing power. But it was a substantive and meaningful start.
Instead of growing to seriously challenge the ANC, COPE collapsed. Today, they have no seats in Parliament.
I suspect that the abject failure of COPE had a discouraging effect on “the good ones” within the ANC. Imagine you are a principled ANC member, thinking about making the jump to the new principled party and speaking out about corruption, and then you watch it fall apart. I’m sure that even years later, part of what prevents another breakaway by any “good ones” left, is the fear of becoming another COPE.
But COPE is back. They have a new (interim) leader and seem serious about contesting the 2026 local elections.
If, by a true miracle, they do well, then they have a second shot at providing the electorate with what they truly and clearly want: the ANC, but not corrupt.
They probably won’t succeed. But it’s an interesting story to follow.
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This article is about the South African political party, the Congress of the People (COPE).
Despite the funny name in an internet context, this is actually a real party and an important one to know about if you want to understand South Africa’s recent history.
People always ask why South Africans continued to vote ANC during the years of gross corruption and why there wasn’t a fightback campaign within the ANC. But there was. COPE was formed by disgruntled ANC members who opposed the direction the country took under Zuma.
By the standards of proportional representation, they did really well in their first outing. They came third, with half the votes of the DA. The ANC was still such a behemoth, that these numbers didn’t translate to governing power. But it was a substantive and meaningful start.
Instead of growing to seriously challenge the ANC, COPE collapsed. Today, they have no seats in Parliament.
I suspect that the abject failure of COPE had a discouraging effect on “the good ones” within the ANC. Imagine you are a principled ANC member, thinking about making the jump to the new principled party and speaking out about corruption, and then you watch it fall apart. I’m sure that even years later, part of what prevents another breakaway by any “good ones” left, is the fear of becoming another COPE.
But COPE is back. They have a new (interim) leader and seem serious about contesting the 2026 local elections.
If, by a true miracle, they do well, then they have a second shot at providing the electorate with what they truly and clearly want: the ANC, but not corrupt.
They probably won’t succeed. But it’s an interesting story to follow.