EFFORTPOST 2008: South Africans Cope, when they Hope, that COPE will defeat the ANC

Greetings Dramatards

So by 2008, white South Africans have started to realize that the ANC was there to stay, and despite the alarming incompetence, corruption and instant decay of every institution which they touched in the short span of merely a decade, the loyalty of ANC-wincucks, and the impoverished black masses voting them in repeatedly, seemed to be unwavering. There was virtually no scandal too egregious, no nepotism too over the line. No theft too grand.

The very moment the aged Mandela stepped down after just one term, it was like a house of falling cards. While the Mandela Administration was mostly competent, and Mandela himself had bucketloads of charisma - the fact remains that Nepotism started on day one, 1995. Many white liberals have nostalgia-goggles towards the Mandela Administration as being some uncorruptible benevolent rulers whom did absolutely nothing wrong, and that it was the intensely corrupt Thabo Mbeki who followed up Mandela in 1999 which led the doorway for statewide corruption in RSA.

The reality is that while Mandela himself was a stunning leader, he enabled large scale nationwide Nepotism for woefully unqualified individuals to obtain prominent and politically critical high positions of power, simply based on ANC party loyalties, and their rankings within the ANC rebellion's leadership. He had to placate many different ethnicities (like the competing Xhosas and Zulus who still held century long grudges), whom all wanted to have their political leaders at the helm of various government institutions. It is a reality that while Mandela steered a ship well, he also normalized nepotism on an unprecedented scale.

As we've seen with so many South American revolutions and counter-revolutions, it appears that charismatic revolutionaries don't always make for competent bureaucrats.

We've also seen the latest Turkey election in which many supporters continued to keep Erdogan in power, regardless of his corruption and poor state leadership. I was personally coping that his opponent Kemal would actually succeed to dethrone him, yet close is never enough. Hilariously it seems that many of the expats and immigrants from Western Europe were the ones responsible for tipping the scales into Erdogan's favour lmoa

https://www.euronews.com/2023/05/15/turkish-election-how-did-turks-in-europe-cast-their-ballots-for-erdogan-or-kilicdaroglu

Still, in spite of the wingcuckery and voters for ANC, in 2008 a lot of South Africans still had large hope for the country - both whites and liberal blacks who were also unhappy with the corruption displayed by the ANC post-Mandela. The rand was still going strong-ish and petrol was cheap.

In 2008, former members of the African National Congress (ANC), would meet in Bloemfontein and founded "The Congress of the People" (COPE). They were sick of the internal division and squabbles between ANC high membership and wanted to establish a competing party.

There was a lot of unironic hopefulness in this venture, as very high ranking ANC members like Mosiuoa Lekota, Mbhazima Shilowa and Mluleki George, were breaking line with the mainstream ANC leadership. These weren't just nobodies, there actually was a chance to form a core of opposition against the ANC, as a viable alternative party! Liberal journos were hyping up this shit!

It's important for foreigners to understand the RSA voting makeup for the past, to get an idea as to what Saffer r-slurs believed the COPE party could help change. The ANC basically dominated 1990 - 2010 undisturbed with 60-70% of the national total votes. So they were completely untouchable. It's also this dominance which gave them the arrogance to rule as corrupt as they pleased, because they knew they had zero competition, and no capacity for the opposition parties to ever realistically overtake in either National or Provincial governments. You guys know the saying: if you don't have to compete, you don't have to care.

1999: https://results.elections.org.za/dashboards/npe/app/dashboard.html

2004: https://results.elections.org.za/dashboards/npe/app/dashboard.html

As you can see ANC is perpetually close to 65+ percent of all RSA votes.

======

I show these to demonstrate how untouchable the ANC seemed to be. And how frustrated white liberals were with the passive compliance black peeps had to just give over districts to corrupt local governments no matter how crushingly bad they were run. But these liberals and other whitoids didn't understand the mindset that many of these Post-Apartheid people had been through. Even though mandela had left, the ANC would always be his party - the party of men like him and Steve Biko and other black rights activists jailed by the NP regime, yet still defiantly stood up for the rights of SA blacks everywhere!

They had an undying loyalty to the ANC as a symbol of their freedom, and the democratization of the country, not the leaders in the party themselves. White liberals could not bridge the gape between black peeps, and since they had not always obtained good services under the Apartheid regime anyway, the collapse of infrastructure was inconsiquential to blacks. Further more there was a spitefulness from much of the black voters towards whites, both for Apartheid and the wealth-inequality between the races. For many RSA blacks, whenever the whites and journ*lists screamed and squealed in the news about the destruction of infrastructure like potholes in roads, they would be happy about it. Their black leaders were turning the screw on these slimy whites whom had stolen so much land from them - this was justice for apartheid.

It was only fair that whites had their turn for suffering and their undeserved wealth and closed off suburbs undermined through structural degradation right? Well this mentality would be the ultimate self-destruction. It was the best example of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Or eating shit to have others smell your rancid breath,

Because most of these long term corruption-related infrastructural corrosion would tragically affect blacks disproportionally badly. Water system, pumps, water pipes and sewage recycling refineries would for example, be many of the services just absolutely collapsing under the rule of people who literally didn't even have a highschool education. When retired Chemical engineers in the Free State province offered their services to the new black managers, to teach them how to proportion the chloor and other chemicals when treating the human biomatter (shit), so that clean water may be recycled in in the Free State where there are very arid semi-desert regions. Instead, the arrogance and bitterness of these blacks in new positions of power genuinely sincerely refused help, and though that they would be diminished if they accepted the help of white men whom had ruled over them scarcely 15 years prior. They knew better and wanted to contrarianly show whites who were in charge.

I am not making this up, my uncle has been a chemical engineer for 40 years, and his works are lost on upper management whenever he had to inspect the perpetually failing Sewage and water pipes infrastructures within the Free State. It is neglect on such a vast scale, that 1st worlders I feel have a hard time understanding how corruption and incompetence can so completely bring a state to its knees.

https://www.groundup.org.za/article/winburgs-drinking-water-polluted-by-sewage-works/

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-04-11-earthcrimes-free-state-municipalities-foul-failure-on-wastewater-treatment/

https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/free-states-foul-failure-the-critical-state-of-sa-wastewater-plants-20230412

In the Black townships, electricity, water pipes and roads degraded just as fast as that of their white peers, and thus the continual wingcuckery, blind loyalty, or just spite voting against whites affected them just as severe when national infrasctucture started to break down from 10 years of neglect.

Still after 12 years of ANC bullshit, even other ANC members were in upheaval and rebellion, and thus COPE became a very hyped symbol of hope and change. The DP (Democratic Party) in 1999 is the same group as the DA (Democratic Alliance), they just changed their name when they absorbed other COPE members. in 1999 alliances had not yet been solidified in the 2nd democratic election of South Africa, and a bunch of mismash junk parties occupied the opposition against the ANC, all of them way too ideologically different to ever be able to form a functioning alliance.

By 2004 the DA had established themselves as the most potent opposition against the ANC in terms of organization, yet they were still way too proportionally voted by whites. By 2004 the DA also started to become very coloured and Indian dominated because even though the new government mandated affirmative action - so that previiously impoverished and discriminated against peoples, would have the ability climb up the social and economic latter against previously white dominated occupations.

Initially coloureds and indians were very optimistic with BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) the government mandated affirmative action, but they soon realized that BEE just that, specifically BLACK economic empowerment:

https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/693457/businesses-readying-for-a-big-fight-over-new-bee-laws-in-south-africa/

https://briefly.co.za/28111-what-bee-bbbee-levels-explained.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Economic_Empowerment

Big words, many corporatization of terms. The short is you can be shut down if you don't hire black peeps instead of indians/whites as employees. This is reality.

The rankings usually go:

Black female

Black male

Indian female

Indian Male

Coloured female

Coloured males

White female

white male.

===========

The idea is you cannot hire a race lower on the scorecard, if someone higher than the scorecard applies for the same job, to force businesses to help alleviate black from dire poverty Post-Apartheid. It is important to note there was good sincere intentions in this policy, there was realistic fear that white businesses would refuse to ever hire blacks, resulting in perpetual economic class divide. But like all good intentions, the road to heck is paved towards them.

==========

Indians and coloureds were enraged by this. They had believed that the BEE policy would only be temporary to get blacks up on their feet, and that after the 1st Mandela term, it would equalize. Yet the opposite happened. BEE became permanent, and much more strict, and much less favorable towards coloureds.

The coloureds in Cape Town felt extremely alienated towards there black countrymen, and even today coloureds can make Afrikaner racists seem like toddlers in comparison with their extreme contempt towards black peeps. They very culturally different, even though blacks and coloureds shared in their misery beneath Apartheid.

There became a common sentiment - namely they were too brown for NP Afrikaners, yet today they are too white for the ANC. By the end of 2010, Coloureds would become the prime occupants of the Democratic Alliance political party.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkatha_Freedom_Party

To demonstrate that I'm not talking out of my butt whenever I call Zulus the most conservative and rightwing ethnic group in RSA, here was one of their most prominent parties in the 2004 election: the IFP ( Inkatha Freedom Party).

They pretty much didn't like the government interfering with their cultural and communal land, they wanted much more autonomy, and were pretty nationalist for a Zulu dominated cultural KwaZulu-Natal. They weren't Serbian levels or nationalist or mouthfoaming, but they made it clear they wanted nothing to do with the left wing and socialists policies on their home turf. They would find minor success from 2000-2010, but as you guys can see they never amounted to more than 10% of the national vote. They would however stay a dominant contender for the KwaZulu-Natal provincial leadership.

The rest of the parties were trash and useless, and would not survive concurrent election cycles. Thus it was with great hope that the DA would be able to form a worthy alliance with COPE, to obtain the critical black votes which made a dominant share under the national election.

Also by the way, on an irrelevant tangent: notice this party lmoa. If I'm stretching definitions like a slinky then I would define the VF (Vryheids Front) [translated: Freedom Front} as a right wing party, similar as to the Yank republican parties (but there are decisive differences, like RSA people don't think abortion is as bad as yanks is - there are debates but its mostly a non issue and would be supported by RSA whites and VF members if they were magically teleported into burgerland; they'd be mostly pro-abortion or lukewarm at worst)

This party is basically the feeble remainder of all the White afrikaans boomers who vote for it, it still exists today lmoa.

Most whites, even hard right wingers and conservatives vote for the DA (Democratic Alliance). They are still very liberal, even though they are not as left wing as the ANC, I would still describe them as the closest we have to Yank democrats, but they differ from burger democrats decisively also, by for example, strongly supporting the nationalization of all RSA mines and mineral deposits.

Imagine a bunch of turbo racist afrikaner boomers voting for Left wing Liberal DA, simply because they were least worst option in the whitoid eyes. Talk about being politically turbo cucked lmoa

Anyways I hope I succeeded in establishing the 2008/2009 political stage for foreigners to understand, and why the establishment of COPE, and the mutiny of high grade ANC officials into the COPE party, gave white liberals and journocucks a lot of hope that the ANC stalemate and deadlock could be broken.

Even if the COPE and possible future COPE-DA alliance would still never reach an unlikely 50% startegic vote, their larger presence in parliament would allow them to block much of the ANCs bullshit, and force them to enact laws counter to their corruption.

THE MUTINY!

The reality of the schism between ANC party members were actually inglorious. The main COPE mutineers didn't in reality object to the destructive corruption of the ANC, instead it was an internal power struggle for the two mainstream ANC factions aligned with current president ThaboMbeki and the soon to be future president Jacob Zuma.

In 2007, the ANC would hold their 52nd anneversasy national conference at Polokwane Limpopo. The conference resulted in the election of Jacob Zuma and his supporters, ahead of Thabo Mbeki and his supporters, to the ANC's governing body, the National Executive Committee. Zuma was elected ANC president ahead of Mbeki.

Mbeki and his faction wanted to pursue more neoliberal policies and imitate China whim had obtained great coming success in that period by relaxing their absolute state control on all their economy so that their businesses would trade profitably oversees. Jacob Zuma however were far left populists, and wanted to conduct other social policies. Zuma also wanted to give more power to public unions and have the ANC work with the RSA Communist Party. The two inner factions erupted after this vote, where Zuma became the victor.

Additionally there was high levels of ethnic tension between Zuma and Mbeki ,because they each represented an almost avatar of their respective peoples. Zuma was a Zulu, and Mbeki was a Xhosa.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7695492.stm

==========(from the article)

The formal launch of a party of defectors from the governing African National Congress (ANC) marks a decisive moment in the history of post-apartheid South Africa.

The Congress of the People (Cope) - led by Mosiuoa Lekota, a former defence minister, and Mbhazima Shilowa, an ex-premier of the region around Johannesburg - poses the first serious challenge to the ANC since it came to power 14 years ago.

In the 18 years since Nelson Mandela was released from jail, the ANC has gone from being one of the most successful liberation movements, with a leader revered around the world, to a deeply divided organisation, led by Jacob Zuma, who has faced charges of corruption and racketeering.

===========(end quote)

Even a hundred years later the Xhosas have not forgiven the Zulus for displacing them from much of their homeland and basically genociding half of them out of existence. Similar to Yugoslavia having kept the lid of the kettle intact, so too did the oppression of the white Apartheid regime keep the two groups mostly out of each other's hair and spaces, because if ethic tensions or race riots ever evolved during the Aprtheid years, then the NP police would crack down brutally and suppress any rioting or fighting. This wasn't because the afrikaner police and military were being angels or the good guys or anything; they just suppressed any civil discontent that threatoned to destabilize the nation.

In the same way that drama can evolve out of hearsay, so too did the notion amongst Xhosas become loud that their Zulus peers were once again up to no good and wanted to dominate them politically, in the same way that the Serbs had wanted to dominate the rest of the groups into a greater Serbia, before Yugoslavia collapsed into racial civil war.

Now I'm not suggesting the ethnic tensions were anything remotely as bad as the Balkans, there were no murders or fighting like that. But that groomercord had swept between Xhosas and Zulus, with the leadup to Zuma's election as President of the ANC during the 52nd ANC conference.

Xhosas felt content when Mandela and Mbeki ruled the country, now with Zuma, it's like they exchanged the Apartheid whites for a fricking Zulu to rule over them!! The ethnic tensions could be cut with a knife, and a lot of followed.

Meanwhile the idiot whitoids and journocucks didn't grasp the full reason for this mutiny, and creation of COPE, was because of internal division, instead of protestations against a new era of hope and butterflies

https://web.archive.org/web/20181122092133/http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=19962

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7849134.stm

==========(from article)

The formation of Cope is being widely seen as the most significant development in South African politics since the end of apartheid, our correspondent said. South Africa's election is expected to take place in April or May. The ANC has ruled the country since the end of apartheid in 1994. While Cope is not expected to win, it could drastically cut the ANC's majority enough to prevent it automatically forming a government, our correspondent said.

Cope's manifesto also included plans for a stabilisation fund to help protect companies affected by the global financial crisis.

The party was formed after last year's ANC conference in Polokwane, when then President Thabo Mbeki lost his fight with Jacob Zuma to remain party president.

Mr Zuma's supporters went on to force Mbeki loyalists out of key positions of power, and Mr Mbeki was forced to step down as president in September.

Cope's registration has been delayed because the name it had initially chosen, the South African National Congress, was challenged by the ANC, while the second choice name - the South African Democratic Congress - had already been taken by another party.

=======(end of article)

COPE HOPE:

There was a general sense of optimism by r-slurs who followed politcal news, and COPE soon became a household name. Were they actually going to offer a successful challenge against the ANC?!

https://mg.co.za/article/2008-12-11-cope-launches-battle-to-gain-votes/

https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2009-03-23-cope-gives-south-africa-hope/

You can read the article - it demonstrates how suave and charismatic the COPE leaders were towards the media compared to the brokenshit engrish with which african leaders usually speak next to a microphone.

Q: Jacob Zuma sometimes threatens to "out" people who he hints were more involved in alleged arms deal-related corruption than he, but so far he has not actually exposed them. He has been criticised for this. You have accused the ANC of keeping silent while you wrongly went to jail. Is there any reason why you cannot out them now?

A: There will come a time when I mention the names of people who did profit from the money that came in 1988 when the UDF was banned, the money I went to jail for. The people who received that money, high up in the ANC know that. Zuma is threatening that if you take him to court, he will expose them. I am not doing that. I have been to prison. I cannot threaten anyone and I only raise it because it is a matter of honour and integrity. I am not using this as a stick to beat anyone to try to escape from appearing in court like Zuma.

Q: Analysts suggest that Cope is losing popularity because of the mixed messages you give on affirmative action and coalitions?

A: In the beginning maybe when Cope was trying to formulate policy - but now we are clear about affirmative action and coalitions and people are beginning to understand it more and more. On the issue of coalitions Dr Dandala came out clearly. My experience is that Cope is increasing in popularity on the ground - our popularity far outstrips our capacity to meet those expectations.

ELECTION TIME!

And COPE basically comes out in a wet fart. A paltry 7%

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-08-31-no-hope-cope-proves-how-tough-life-is-for-small-time-political-parties-in-south-africa/

Unfortunately for everyone the hype train derailed pretty fricking abysmally. COPE proved that small fringe parties, even with charismatic leaders didn't stand a chance, and that people generally vote for the save option, rather than a radical party with less likely chance to get elected.

And uhh that's it. The hype died, and the current stalemate between ANC, EFF and DA is what RSA would look like for the next 15 years. Political nilists would basically give up any hope to invigorate the black population of RSA to hold their leaders accountable for corruption.

2009 not just ended with Jacob Zuma being elected, the corrupt to be president in the History of SA, but it also showed how RSA would remain for the next decade.