UDM runs COPE's city office 'and used its funds in election'

STILL licking its wounds after suffering a massive blow in the elections, COPE got another kick in the teeth yesterday when its Nelson Mandela Bay leaders discovered for the first time it had another constituency office and it was being run by UDM supporters.

Although the constituency office – situated in Pearson Street, Central – has been open since 2011, COPE regional leaders said they only recently heard about the office through a hand-over letter written by the party's former Bhisho leader Sam Kwelita, who defected to the UDM shortly before the elections.

Kwelita had written a hand-over letter to COPE's new and only MPL, Lievie Sharpley.

COPE regional chairman Khwezi Ntshanyana said the location of the office was deliberately kept a secret and was used to run the UDM's campaign in the run-up to the elections. - Rochelle de Kock