by Keith Richmond
MOSIUOA LEKOTA, a close ally of former President Thabo Mbeki, is set to launch a breakaway party next month which threatens to split the ruling African National Congress and undermine its dominance of politics in South Africa.
Mr Lekota, a former national chair of the ANC, will announce the new party at a convention on Sunday November 2.
He said he had been driven to it by the “arrogance” and “elimination of internal democracy” in the ANC. It is the biggest challenge to the party, which has governed South Africa since the end of apartheid, in its 96-year history.
Mr Lekota, who resigned as defence minister after Mr Mbeki was forced to stand down last month, was suspended by the ANC for “disciplinary reasons” earlier this month.
The party has been riven by disputes between supporters of the former President and the new leader of the ANC and Mr Mbeki’s longtime rival, Jacob Zuma.
Mr Lekota mocked Mr Zuma at a recent meeting in Port Elizabeth. He parodied Mr Zuma’s public dancing and laughed at his willingness to sing the anti-apartheid anthem Umshini Wami (“Bring Me My Machine Gun”).
Mr Lekota laughed: “We live in a democracy, so who does he want to shoot?”
The strength of the new party – which is expected to organise first in the Eastern and Western Cape – will depend not just on the number of new recruits
but on the heavyweight politicians who break ranks to back it.
