Head of Policy for Cope, Smuts Ngonyama, said on Saturday that the ANC's attempt to stop the Congress of the People from using its name will fail, the SABC reported.

This after the ANC filed an urgent high court application to stop the breakaway movement from using its name.

Ngonyama was speaking at a Western Cape Cope policy conference at Mfuleni outside Cape Town.

He said the Congress of the People was an event that the ruling party cannot claim exclusivity to.

Cope will begin its campaign ahead of Wednesday's by-elections in Phillippi in the Cape Flats on Sunday.

Sapa