The political situation in South Africa has always been an interesting one. Since 1994 when the ANC came into power they have had no opposition. Roll into 2008 and the landscape seems rather different. Thabo Mbeki was ousted as President of the country after a very dismal attempt at dealing with various issues.

Angry members of the ANC left the party and started a new one: “The Congress Of The People” (COPE)

COPE have announced that people who registered with the party on popular social network website, Facebook, would become a “stand alone” region. The party’s secretary-general, Charlotte Lobe, said the 9 000 members who had clicked on COPE’s Facebook page would be represented by 50 delegates at the party’s inaugural national conference.

Chairing the COPE launch, Mbhazima Shilowa, said cyberspace, especially Facebook, played a vital part in their plan to take the party to those South Africans who were living abroad.

“We are a new party, a party of modernisation. We can send clips of our video launch to every South African if we wanted to. We are a party that embraces new technology and we have renewed the hope of those in despair,” said Shilowa. People in London and Australia, said Kheepe, has consulted with COPE and had decided to walk to their embassy and demand to vote.

“Our citizens of this country that are abroad must be able to vote.” Shilowa added that their party had not only reached people in the United Kingdom but also in Germany. He said they would continue to use cyberspace to get as many votes as they could.

It worked for Obama, now let’s see what type of Social Media Strategy COPE will use!