Judgment reserved in battle for use of COPE 

A full bench of the Pretoria High Court heard yesterday how the group of politicians who split from the African National Congress (ANC) was trying to get exclusive use of the name Congress of the People, though the group was not party to the adoption in 1955 of the ANC’s Freedom Charter at what is often referred to as the Congress of the People.

The court reserved judgment in the ANC’s urgent application seeking to stop the new party from using the phrase Congress of the People (COPE) as its name, and to stop it from registering the name with the Independent Electoral Commission. The ANC is seeking to stop the splinter group, headed by former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa and former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota, from using the name at its official launch in Bloemfontein next Tuesday.

ANC counsel Philip Ginsburg SC said the ANC was not claiming for itself the right to the phrase the Congress of the People. “It does not claim ownership of the name. By giving the COPE party the exclusive right to use the name Congress of the People, it would be suggesting that it is associated with the 1955 historical event or that it is the sole successor politically speaking to the 1955 event. That is not true. It is a lie,” Ginsburg said.

Judge Bernard Ngoepe asked Ginsburg whether he was not underestimating the intelligence of the electorate, as it was easy to differentiate between an event in 1955 and a party formed this year. Cedric Puckrin SC for COPE said the name of the new party resembled none of the party names registered with the electoral commission. Puckrin said the ANC election manifesto of 1994 did not make any mention of the “Congress of the People”, and nothing stopped any citizen saying they aspired “to the ideals of the Congress of the People in 1955”.

Ernest Mabuza, www.businessday.co.za, 11.12.2008