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Cope names branch after Goniwe

The ANC breakaway party Congress of the People (Cope) has named its Cradock branch after liberation struggle icon Matthew Goniwe, pictured.

The ANC breakaway party Congress of the People (Cope) has named its Cradock branch after liberation struggle icon Matthew Goniwe, pictured.

"Many men and women from this town have paid the highest price in the struggle against apartheid.

"It is therefore a special honour for us that the Goniwe family has allowed us to use the name of this hero of our struggle to name our branch," the party's head of policy Smuts Ngonyama said yesterday.

Describing Goniwe as an icon in the struggle against apartheid, Ngonyama said it was befitting for the party to honour Goniwe in Cradock - as it was one of the major towns in which a contribution to the achievement of democracy had taken place.

Along with three other activists, Goniwe was killed in 1985 by apartheid security forces.

Known as the Cradock Four, their mutilated bodies were found in Port Elizabeth.

In 2004, Goniwe was posthumously awarded the Order of Luthuli.

The Order is awarded to South Africans who have made a meaningful contribution to the struggle for democracy, human rights, nation-building, justice and peace, and conflict resolution.

l Meanwhile, Cope president Mosiuoa Lekota, has insisted that his leaving the ANC and forming a breakaway party had nothing to do with the recalling of former president Thabo Mbeki.

"It was only a matter of time," said Lekota to a crowd at Umlazi's Griffiths Mxenge Hall on Saturday. - Sapa and Canaan Mdletshe.

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