SENIOR allies of toppled president Thabo Mbeki yesterday set the stage for a dramatic split in the ruling African National Congress that will reshape the map of South African politics.
Accusing the ANC, currently led by Jacob Zuma, of tribalism and embracing threats of violence, a former ANC chairman and defence minister, Mosiuoa Lekota, said he was convening a national convention, similar to that which adopted the ANC's historic F
reedom Charter in 1955, to decide whether to launch a breakaway ANC.
"We are serving today divorce papers," said Mr Lekota, who was a political prisoner on Robben Island alongside Nelson Mandela during the apartheid era. Mr Lekota had been expected to announce the new party yesterday.
Pressed whether his remarks at the press conference in Johannesburg amounted to a formal signal of a split, he said: "This is probably the parting of the ways. It probably is."
Mr Lekota claimed the ANC leadership under Mr Zuma had betrayed the Freedom Charter, which underlay the ANC's struggle against racial apartheid, by demanding that there be a "political solution" to prevent Mr Zuma facing trial for corruption, fraud, racketeering and tax evasion in connection with weapons purchases from Britain and other European Union countries, which could result in his imprisonment.
Various supporters of Mr Zuma, most notably the ANC Youth League president, Julius Malema, have vowed to "to take up arms and kill and die for Mr Zuma" if he is prevented by the courts from becoming state president following a general election next May.
Mr Lekota's move did not win universal approval. Professor Sipho Seepe, a distinguished political analyst, called him "a spoilt brat" and said Mr Lekota was a member of a team, led by Mr Mbeki, that was known for stifling dissent.
