The African National Congress said it would not attend a convention by a dissident faction aimed at launching a rival party to contest next year’s elections, a Sunday newspaper reported.
Former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa extended the invitation to his former party.
“The new party is expected to take the social democrat route and to exploit technology to the full in its campaign and recruitment process,” Mbhazima, who resigned from the ANC earlier this month, told the Sunday Independent.
“Mobile phone text messages, websites including Facebook and other social forums would be used for discussions and recruiting,” he added.
All parties would be invited to the faction’s convention next month to launch the new party, Mbhazima said, which “would target young, upwardly mobile professionals but at the same time focus on the poor and the working class”.
But ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe told the newspaper his party was not willing to accept the invitation.
“We can’t be invited by some faction. We can’t legitimise a faction,” he was quoted as saying.
Former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota, who is leading the dissidents’ faction, has been holding meetings around the country to mobilise support for the convention, to be held on November 2 in Bloemfontein.
The meetings have been disrupted by angry ANC members who accuse him of being a power hungry rebel. – AFP