{"id":27639,"date":"2026-03-04T07:25:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T05:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=27639"},"modified":"2026-03-04T07:25:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T05:25:56","slug":"sa-cope-leader-dies-at-77","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-cope-leader-dies-at-77\/","title":{"rendered":"SA COPE leader dies at 77"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South African (SA) Leader of the Congress of the People (COPE), Mosiuoa Lekota, has died at the age of 77.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Lekota had stepped back from active politics last year to focus on his health, prompting the appointment of Teboho Loate as the party\u2019s interim leader.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A veteran of SA\u2019s liberation struggle, Lekota was previously a senior member of the African National Congress before co-founding COPE in 2008 following internal divisions within the ruling party.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He served as the first Premier of the Free State from 1994 to 1996 and later as Minister of Defence between 1999 and 2008 under former president Thabo Mbeki.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Tributes are expected to pour in from across the political spectrum, recognising Lekota\u2019s decades-long role in shaping SA\u2019s democratic dispensation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":27640,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-27639","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"SA Leader of the Congress of the People (COPE), Mosiuoa Lekota, has died at the age of 77","published_date":"2026-03-04 07:24:38","news_description":"SA Leader of the Congress of the People (COPE), Mosiuoa Lekota, has died at the age of 77","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27641,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27639\/revisions\/27641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=27639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}