Mosiuoa Lekota, Founder of One of South Africa’s Greatest 'What-Might-Have-Beens', Dies

Mosiuoa Lekota, a former African National Congress (ANC) Cabinet minister and founder of an ANC breakaway, the Congress of the People (COPE), has died. He was 77.

In a statement COPE said Lekota had passed away after a period of illness and said that his family had asked for privacy.

Lekota (who was also known as “Terror” because of his aggressive style of play as a footballer in his youth) was born in Kroonstad in the Free State in 1948. He became involved in student activism in the 1970s, spending time behind bars on Robben Island from 1976 to 1982. He then joined the United Democratic Front, a broad anti-apartheid group with links to the ANC, becoming its publicity secretary.

Following the unbanning of the ANC in 1990 Lekota was elected to its National Executive Committee in 1991.

He became the first Premier of the Free State after the ANC’s election victory in 1994, before becoming the first chairperson of the National Council of Provinces in 1996. He was then promoted to the Cabinet by Thabo Mbeki, serving as defence minister from 1999 to 2008.

However, he resigned from the Cabinet and from the ANC following the resignation of Thabo Mbeki as president of South Africa, after his “recall” by the party in 2008. He went on to form COPE with Mbhazima Shilowa, a former trade unionist and Premier of Gauteng.

The party did well in its first election, winning 7.4% of the vote in 2009, securing seats in every provincial legislature, and emerging as the second-biggest party in five of the nine provincial legislatures.

However, infighting over the direction and leadership of the party between Lekota and Shilowa soon saw it lose its momentum. The party’s support collapsed, winning only 0.7% of the vote in the 2014 election. In 2024 it failed to make it back into Parliament, winning only 0.1% of the vote.

Marius Roodt, deputy editor at The Common Sense, said that the story of COPE was one of the greatest what-might-have-beens of post-apartheid South African politics.

“COPE’s initial electoral performance shows that there was space for the party and what it was selling – such as its support for constitutionalism and non-racialism – in the South African electoral market. Don’t forget that COPE did better than the Economic Freedom Fighters did in their first election,” Roodt said.

He continued, “COPE also did not have the baggage of the Democratic Alliance in the eyes of many voters and if things had gone right for COPE, it could quite likely have started winning 20% or more of the vote, which would primarily have been from former ANC supporters. If COPE had not collapsed like it did, the ANC could have been brought under 50% sooner than the 2024 election.”

“While COPE was overall a failure, Lekota must be praised for his attempts to build an alternative to the ANC. History will likely remember him kindly and as a patriot,” Roodt said.

Lekota is survived by his wife, Cynthia, and six children.