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[email protected] http://www.eisa.org.za South Africa 2009 #2 ANALYTIC COVERAGE The ANC and COPE: Fleeting phenomenon or substantive opposition? TABLE of CONTENTS Prof. Susan Booysen Graduate School of Public and Development Management University of the Witwatersrand Analytic coverage The ANC and COPE: Fleeting phenomenon Introduction or substantive opposition 1 South Africa: the State of Democracy On the surface, COPE appeared to be a political party and its Implications for 2009 Elections 8 unlike any other that had emerged in the opposition Local Government, the 2009 Elections domain since 1994. In its origins it was significant. In its and Party Manifestos 12 potential catalyst role, it seemed to have the potential South Africa Elections 2009: to ring in a new era in opposition politics. Whilst the Political Parties Manifestos on chances remained that it could still emerge battered and Electoral Reform 16 belittled from the 2009 election campaign, also because Provincial coverage of its Mbeki links, there was little doubt that party Eastern Cape 20 politics in South Africa would never be the same again. Free State 24 Limpopo 28 The ANC’s 2009 contest with COPE was also nothing like KwaZulu-Natal 31 its engagement with any other opposition party in South Mpumalanga 37 Africa’s preceding three post-apartheid democratic Northern Cape 42 Western Cape 47 general elections of 1994, 1999 and 2004. COPE fell into Gauteng 50 the category of ‘legitimate’ opposition, helping to break the compulsive closing of electoral ranks around a ABOUT EISA 56 hallowed ruling party.