The ruling African National Congress (ANC), which led the struggle against apartheid, is bracing for a potentially bruising split on Saturday as dissidents open a convention to prepare to launch a rival party.
About 4 000 people are expected to attend the two-day convention in Johannesburg to draft policies for the new party expected to challenge the ANC in next year’s elections.
Delegates will focus on crafting policies on social development, electoral reforms and poverty, among other concerns, the group’s spokesperson, Nicolus Mjempu, said.
“All these are burning national issues which delegates will look into during the convention,” Mjempu said.
The holding of the convention marks a dramatic shake-up in a country where the ANC has dominated political life since the end of white-minority rule in 1994, when it brought in Nelson Mandela as president.
The party won more than two thirds of the votes in the last election and controls a strong majority in Parliament.
Earlier this year, ANC leader Jacob Zuma vowed that his party would “rule until Jesus comes back”.
But Zuma now says the splinter movement poses a “challenge” to the ANC. Other party leaders are less diplomatic, denouncing the dissidents as “dogs”, “political imbeciles” and “political careerists”.
ANC activists have also staged protests over the past 10 days to disrupt rallies by the dissidents, who have been campaigning across the country to drum up support for their movement.
Mjempu said the new party would not be officially launched until December 16, just months before the next elections.
No one expects it to unseat the ANC from power, but analysts say it could dent the party’s control of Parliament.
“It is nice to have a party contesting the tradition of the ANC of being the dominant party,” said Somadoda Fikile, chairperson of the Walter Sisulu University Council.
“It may not be able to defeat the ANC at the poll next year, but it is likely to be a party of the future,” he said.
Internal rifts
The ANC’s internal rifts first broke into the open last December, when Zuma seized the party leadership from former president Thabo Mbeki.
Zuma’s allies forced Mbeki to resign as president in September, just months before the end of his term, in a humiliating blow to the man who succeeded Nelson Mandela as the country’s second president after apartheid.
The breakaway movement is led by Mosiuoa Lekota, known by the nickname “Terror”, a former ANC chairperson and defence minister who resigned from Cabinet after Mbeki’s ouster.
He has been joined by Mbhazima Shilowa, former premier of Gauteng, and a small but growing list of provincial officials.
Lekota and his allies say the ouster of Mbeki highlighted the ANC’s drift from its democratic ideals, but critics dismiss Lekota as a political opportunist.
Mbeki himself has not spoken publicly about the splinter movement.
Existing opposition parties have welcomed the splinter movement, and the Democratic Alliance (DA) has promised to send a high-powered delegation to the convention.
“The DA supports any initiative that will help to strengthen constitutional democracy. We are committed to realigning politics to challenge the ANC for power,” party leader Helen Zille said in a statement.
Zuma, closely allied with South Africa’s powerful labour unions, still enjoys support from the millions of people mired in unemployment and poverty.
But analysts say the new group might be able to harness the aspirations of the small but growing black middle class, which shares fewer common interests with Zuma’s left-leaning allies.
The new movement “is taking its chances even if it has little time to mobilise for the elections”, political analyst Frederick van Slabbert said. “It is a credible challenger to the ANC.” — AFP