Senior African National Congress member Phillip Dexter and former ANC Women’s caucus parliamentary chairperson Kiki Rwexana quit the party on Tuesday.
They told reporters in Cape Town they would take part in the national convention called by former ANC chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota and former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa in Gauteng this weekend.
Dexter recently resigned from the South African Communist Party.
Rwexana is also a former deputy secretary general of the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL), and is the first sitting ANC MP to resign from the party and from Parliament.
Dexter said he was leaving the ANC with a great deal of sadness, but the ANC had undergone a ”transformation” since about 2004.
Personal ambition, revenge, and vindictiveness had become the main driving force behind the movement.
Dishonesty the order of the day
”Dishonesty has really become the order of the day. Most alarming has been the peddling of many lies by current ANC leaders in recent times to justify political positions and decisions, and in particular, the election or removal of people to and from political office.”
The current ANC leadership was at the forefront of undermining the Constitution, Dexter said.
Rwexana said she too was sad to leave the party, which had been her second home for a long time.
However, she said: ”Today the ANC is very cold … It depends on which side you are supporting.
”The ANC we used to know is no more. The ANC that taught democracy in South Africa is no more … that taught respect to each, respect to the elderly, is no more.
”There’s hatred and anger in the ANC [now]. If you have a different view, you are no longer regarded as a member of the ANC. You are regarded as someone who is anti-ANC,” she said.
Speaking at the same briefing, Shilowa said work for the convention was progressing well and it was hoped to release the programme and list of speakers on Thursday.
All political parties in Parliament had been invited to attend, as well as business, trade unions, and individuals, he said.
The disaffected members are seen as loyal to former president Thabo Mbeki who was forced to resign last month by the executive of the ANC.
Mbeki’s resignation at the climax of a political struggle with ANC leader Jacob Zuma marked the biggest political upheaval in the party’s history.
Tolerance
Meanwhile, Shilowa has called for political tolerance in the run-up for to the formation of the new party.
All parties should be free to campaign across the country, he said on Monday. ”We should be able to shun and frown on those who create no-go areas.”
Addressing an open debate at the University of Johannesburg on the formation of the new party, Shilowa said democracy entailed that parties had the right to go to the public and explain who they were.
”We have the right to go to the marketplace and share ideas … say who we are and this is what we stand for,” Shilowa said.
Referring to membership of various parties, Shilowa said large numbers did not necessarily mean a party would win the majority vote.
”It’s not the membership you have that ensures a win, it’s the message, consistency and hope. No amount of insults will stop us,” he said.