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The Congress National Committee meeting held over the last weekend has unanimously given the thumbs up for all preparations for the COPE National Congress scheduled for the 27th to 30 May at the St Georges Conference Centre near Irene in Pretoria. The CNC has approved the draft policy documents that will form the basis of policy discussions at the congress and has called on all members of COPE and society in general to engage with these policies. The accreditation report that was produced as a result of the branch audit has also been presented and approved by the CNC - given green light for branches to send delegates to the much awaited conference. Speaking to the media in Johannesburg COPE General Secretary Charlotte Lobe said: " The CNC is satisfied that all crucial components of conference preparations are in place for a successful national Congress and has called on branches to prepare themselves thoroughly to make it a success"
Policy Documents
The CNC has released a document named Cope: Political Perspectives that starts key debates on matters such as the ideological orientation and the future of COPE in the political landscape of South This document will be available today on the COPE website and the various COPE Facebook Pages for the Congress and will be widely circulated in public.
The second set of documents are draft COPE policy documents covering the following key themes:
· A new economic direction
· Social Policy
· Governance, Government and Civil Society
· Security and Justice
" These policy documents will be the heart of the 16 commissions that will constitute the COPE conference next week and will ensure that delegates have enough to deliberate on for COPE to emerge with a much stronger policy framework to be able to tackle the challenges facing both the organization and indeed the country". These policies will guide COPE's life in the community as well as its public representatives at the national level and in all provincial legislatures where COPE is represented.

Congress Delegations
The CNC has approved the national audit report and the preliminary allocation of delegates using the delegations formula approved by the CNC early this year. This follows a thorough national audit of membership and branches. The audit has brought the CNC to the following determination of the delegations that will constitute congress:
The Eastern Cape has the biggest delegation at 644 delegates and Mpumalanga with the smallest delegation of 2 delegates. The rest of the provinces will be represented as follows:

Western Cape 266
North West 198
Limpopo 391
Free State 162
Gauteng 167
Northern Cape 185
KZN 37
These numbers brings the total number of delegates expected to attend congress to 2316 delegates. With staff, Guests and non voting delegates the conference is expected to be just under 3000 strong giving way to a robust exchanges over the 3 days.

Congress Theme: ‘Keeping the hope for change alive'

The CNC has preliminarily approved the Organizational and Financial reports of the congress. These will be made available at Congress. The accreditation for delegates and guests will commence on Thursday the 27th of May at 09 am and will continue until 11 pm on the same day at the Manhattan Hotel in Pretoria.
The congress under the theme: "Keeping the hope for change alive" will officially open on the 28th May 2010 at 08h30 with the President‘s Political Report expected to be delivered from 10 am. The Afternoon will be occupied by credentials adoption, constitutional discussion as well as the presentation of the organizational report by the General Secretary. The elections for the office bearers is expected to get underway in the first evening of the congress with results announcements to be done at 11 am on the 29th of November.
Policy Discussions will happen in various commissions that will happen on the second day of the conference and to be concluded on the last day when the congress declaration will be adopted ahead of the inaugural address of the newly elected President of the party. The congress hopes to conclude its business by mid day on the 30th of May 2010.
We are satisfied that all the logistical arrangements for the conference are in place and there should be no hitches for the staging of a successful and memorable conference. We are aware that the eyes of the whole country will be on us as we conduct this task and we will do our best to come out of this stronger as an organization" Concluded Lobe.