COPE Western Cape leader Mbulelo Ncedana laid the complaint on Friday, accusing Lekota of corruption and mismanagement.

Yesterday, an angry Lekota, who was unaware of the case, rubbished the allegations against him. "The claim is nonsense. When a criminal tricks you, does that make you a criminal?" he asked.

Ncedana claims Ndude was used as a scapegoat.

"It [may be] correct to say that she has mismanaged funds and transferred money into her personal accounts or created bogus companies to which some of the funds were directed, but she was mismanaging the funds with Mosioua Lekota himself, the man who led her suspension," he told the Sunday Times. "He was signatory to the very accounts which were mismanaged.

"The funds we want the police to investigate are the funds that have been given to the party by the Independent Electoral Commission, public funds which should be accounted for."

The Sunday Times has learnt that the claims against Lekota were made after the party's provincial branch scrutinised COPE finances in the wake of Ndude's suspension.

Documents scrutinised this week allegedly showed that Lekota:

Co-signed the authorisation for a R300000 payment into Ndude's personal credit card account in April 2011;

Had a petrol card that ran up monthly bills of R5000 to R13000, which the party never authorised; and

Received more than R100000 by way of transfer from COPE head office into his personal bank accounts between May 2010 and December 2011. A single transaction of R98000 was made in September 2011.

Police spokesman Captain Frederick van Wyk confirmed "a case of fraud" was opened at Cape Town Central SAPS.

Ndude declined to comment.

Lekota, however, vehemently denied wrongdoing and defended his expulsion of Ndude, who faces a possible disciplinary hearing this week.

He said he reported Ndude to the party after finding out that she had "tricked" both him and co-signatory Deidre Carter into signing for COPE money to be transferred into her personal accounts and accounts belonging to her relatives.

He said that, on advice from both the Congress National Committee and the organisation's lawyers, they would lay a complaint against Ndude this week.

A year ago this week, acting as chairman of the party, Lekota recommended the expulsion of his rival, Mbhazima Shilowa. A disciplinary hearing found him guilty of authorising R2-million of COPE's constituency funds be directed to "purposes that were not legitimate or permissible in terms of policy or parliamentary parties' allowances".

COPE spokesman Buks Mahlangu said the party would deal with the matter when, and if, presented with evidence of wrongdoing against Lekota.