The Congress of the People (Cope), the breakaway party started from the gradually dwindling African National Congress, paraded yet another member of the National Assembly before the media on Tuesday — Mampe Ramotsamai, whose constituency is among the vineyard workers of Stellenbosch.

She explained the difficulties she had in deciding to leave the ANC after having been a loyal member of it since 1983, having joined it underground "when it was not as fashionable as it is today". But she said that the party is not the party it once was.

"We began to forget why we were there," she said, "that is for the people.

It became a party for individuals."

She said she had found it difficult to explain to her constituents and to her children why the party got rid of President Thabo Mbeki just six months short of the end of his term of office.

"I have a responsibility now to make sure I change things now for the future of my children and my country."

Ramotsamai said that voting for the bills abolishing the Scorpions was one of the most painful moments of her life. She said she believed the unit had done wonderful work, but she felt bound by the decisions the party took at Polokwane.

"A number of MPs felt guilty about what they were doing," she said. But as a member of the public works committee in Parliament, she was a keen supporter of the expropriation bill. As a farm workers' MP she felt it was a tool to help redress the imbalances of the past.

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