ANC splinter group to launch new party in December

Some reports say the new party will be named the South African National Congress. 'Our problem was not the ANC as an organization, but the fact that it had been hijacked,' one organizer says.

By Robyn Dixon

November 3, 2008

Reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa — Dissident members of South Africa's African National Congress moved forward Sunday in breaking away from the ruling political party, meeting here to decide on the new organization's leadership, name and symbols.

Before going into the session, one of the movement's leaders, former Gauteng province Premier Mbhazima Shilowa, rejected reports that ousted South African President Thabo Mbeki was a silent partner in the new party.

But Shilowa said at a news conference that members of the breakaway group would always revere ANC leaders such as Mbeki and former President Nelson Mandela, and would go on singing songs about them.

"Thabo Mbeki, just like former leaders of the ANC, is not our enemy. Some, if not many, of the people who go with us revere Thabo Mbeki," Shilowa said.

For the group's leaders and many ANC stalwarts, leaving had been a painful choice, he added. "It's like sacrificing a life-long commitment to an organization."

Another of the breakaway group's organizers, Mluleki George, said ANC membership was part of the heritage of the new movement, which according to some reports will be named the South African National Congress.

"Our problem was not the ANC as an organization, but the fact that it had been hijacked," he said in a reference to the new party president, Jacob Zuma, who took power at the ANC's national conference last December.

Reasons for dissent

Many delegates to the new movement's weekend convention listed concerns about the manner in which Mbeki was ousted from the nation's presidency as a motive for joining the dissident group. Other concerns were comments made by Zuma supporters that they were willing to "kill for Zuma" and their calls for a political deal to set aside fraud and corruption charges against him.

The charges against Zuma were thrown out of court on a technicality in September, but their substance has never been tested before a judge. Zuma could still face trial if state prosecutors are successful in appealing the dismissal of the charges.

After a glitzy national convention in Johannesburg attended by about 5,000 people, the new party is officially set to be launched Dec. 16. Shilowa ruled out any chance that dissidents would return to the ANC, saying the goal is to win next year's national elections -- a hefty task given the ANC won nearly 70% of the vote in 2004.

The largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, won 12%. The ANC has dominated South African politics since the first free elections in 1994.

Shilowa said the new movement had no illusions about the hard work ahead.

"It's not a game," he said. "We are not playing. We are committed to forming a new political movement.

"We are starting on the basis that we want to become the next government in the provinces and nationally," he said. "We want to be the majority."

The biggest challenge to the ANC could be an emerging coalition between the breakaway movement and other opposition movements.

Zuma on Saturday called the dissidents "poisonous snakes" and said at a rally Sunday that they were "bigamists." The dissidents, he said, should have brought their dispute with the ANC to a conclusion before they approached other parties.

In a sign of ANC fears about a coalition of opposition parties, Zuma repeatedly attacked the breakaway group for inviting Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille to speak at the convention over the weekend.

"Even before the divorce has concluded they have now announced that they will be getting married to the Democratic Alliance and other opposition parties to form a coalition," Zuma said.

Other opposition parties also spoke at the convention, and Shilowa announced that the movement had also invited ANC representatives to attend.

Shilowa called on ANC-allied trade union leaders not to be "thought police," trying to stop members from leaving the ANC. He also said businesspeople and donors should not have to fear damage to their businesses if they were to join the movement.

"I think the issue of political tolerance becomes very important when you are starting a movement which has its nucleus . . . in another political movement," he said.

Rally disruptions

Fellow organizer George said the ANC preached political tolerance, yet had sent people to disrupt some rallies held by the new movement.

The new movement Saturday endorsed a declaration that it was committed to the constitution, equality before the law and social cohesion.

Dixon is a Times staff writer.