Anna Majavu

Anna Majavu

Cope president Mosiuoa Lekota says people should vote for a government that knows they are hungry every day, not just once every five years.

The Cope leader received a warm welcome from about 200 people at Du Noon informal settlement near Cape Town yesterday, which marked four months since the launch of the breakaway party.

Wading through mounds of garbage and stepping over sewage-filled drains, he told the residents that they should accept rides from the ANC and DA to the polling stations, but vote for a party of their choice.

Lekota advised the crowd to take any food parcels they might be offered before the elections.

"The food does not belong to the ANC but to the government," he said.

He slammed the ANC for using food parcels to entice people.

"Why did the government not provide these food parcels at the same time last year?" he asked the crowd.

Lekota said the ANC's disruption of opposition parties' meetings was a "serious threat to a free and fair election".

He said he did not want to predict how many votes Cope would get but added that "very few people doubt that Cope will be, at the very minimum, the second biggest organisation in the country" after the elections.

Lekota again hit out at ANC president Jacob Zuma saying "there can be no citizens, whatever their standing in society, who can be above the law".

"The ruling party is acting like we are in a one party state," he said.

Many said they would vote for Cope because the ANC and the DA "had not delivered".