The Congress of the People's (Cope's) second deputy president Lynda Odendaal resigned from the party and from Parliament on Tuesday, Cope spokesperson Phillip Dexter confirmed.

Simon Grindrod, a member of the national working committee and Cope's elections head, said he had also resigned from his position, but remained an ordinary member of Cope.

Grindrod told Sapa he quit because of poor leadership.

"The leadership is in the process of destroying the party. It is entirely indifferent to the challenges facing the party."

Odendaal has refused to make public her reasons for quitting, saying she would first discuss these with Cope president Mosiuoa Lekota, Dexter said.

The former businesperson was a political novice when she was named Cope's second deputy president at the party's formal launch in Bloemfontein in December.

Odendaal was one of 30 Cope members who took up seats in the
National Assembly after the fledgling party performed well in the April elections, becoming the third biggest in Parliament.

But, it has been plagued by internal strife and rumours of unhappiness with Lekota's leadership for months.

In a leaked internal document cited in the Cape Times on Tuesday, Dexter warned that Cope had to contend with forces bent on destroying the party.

"Some of these are inside the party itself," he wrote.

He added that some members of the party were "physically, emotionally and financially exhausted".

Grindrod was deputy leader of the Independent Democrats before he defected to join Cope.