Former defence minister Mosiuoa "Terror" Lekota was on Tuesday named president of the newly formed Congress of the People (Cope).

Lekota "served divorce papers" on the ANC in October to form the breakaway group.

His two deputies are former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa, in the post of first deputy president, and Lynda Odendaal, a businesswoman as second deputy president.

Not much is known about blonde-haired Odendaal except that she is the chief executive officer for the Network Support Services (NSS), which is regarded as a southern African market leader in the provisioning of integrated service assurance management solutions.

Mosiuoa Gerard Patrick "Terror" Lekota served in the defence ministry from 1999 to 2008.

The 60-year-old was born in the Senekal area of the Free State province and studied at the St Francis College in KwaZulu-Natal's Mariannhill area.

Lekota was imprisoned at Robben Island from 1974 to 1982 for "conspiring to commit acts endangering the maintenance of law and order".

He became known as Terror because of his aggressive moves on the soccer field as a young boy.

Charlotte Lobe was announced as Cope's secretary-general, with Deidre Carter as her deputy.

The position of treasurer general is held by Hilda Ndude while former ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama was appointed head of policy.

Mluleki George, who served as Lekota's deputy minister of defence, was named Cope's national organiser.

Phillip Dexter was appointed head of communications and will be assisted by Lyndall Shope-Mafole, who will also be involved in national affairs.