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JOHANNESBURG - The defense minister who resigned in protest at the ouster of President Thabo Mbeki said yesterday that he and other disgruntled members of the governing African National Congress may break away to form a new opposition.
Mosiuoa Lekota’s announcement, broadcast live on national TV, reflects growing concern among South Africans about the future of the party that led the fight to end apartheid in 1994 and has governed the country since.
Lekota accused senior ANC
leaders of being undemocratic, fanning ethnic tensions and making a naked grab for power. He did not say outright that a new party would be formed; consultations were still under way but “it seems that we are serving, today, divorce papers.”
An hour later, ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa held out an olive branch, saying the party has “a serious agenda of internal reconciliation.” Phosa added “we don’t believe the marriage is irretrievably broken down (but) we will look at the summons.”
He told a news conference that he was meeting with Lekota on Thursday, among many meetings he was holding with ANC members who may be feeling “uncomfortable.”
Despite that, a stern warning came from ANC president Jacob Zuma, the man expected to become president of the country after elections within six months. “Those who have grievances and other views should bear in mind that there is a limit to utilizing the ANC and ANC structures to destabilize the ANC,” Zuma told the news conference.
Rumors that an ANC faction was preparing to form a new party have abounded since Zuma, supported by leftists in ANC Youth League and the South African Communist Party, last month forced Mbeki to resign.
Mbeki was not at the Lekota news conference on Wednesday, and Lekota refused to say whether the former president was involved in his plans.
If Lekota were to form a new party, it would have little time before the election to mount a real challenge to the overwhelmingly popular ANC. But emergence of a new party would likely increase concerns about whether the ANC was capable of fulfilling its promises to take the country to prosperity and greater democracy.
On Wednesday, Lekota said hundreds of ANC members across the country were already leaving to join established opposition parties.
“I have said to my comrades, we cannot leave the African National Congress. We are the African National Congress because we are committed to the policies and principles of the ANC,” he said. “The current leadership have shown that they are not ANC.”
Lekota said that while Zuma was the “legitimate” leader of the ANC, he was “leading the ANC away from its policies.”
Also regarding Zuma, Lekota spoke of ANC leaders who “stand on public platforms singing songs that advocate violence.” Zuma is known for performing “Bring me my machine gun,” an apartheid-era protest song, after court appearances in his corruption case.
Lekota also decried T-shirts “printed with tribalist slogans, decorated with the face of some senior members of the ANC.” Zulu supporters of Zuma, who is Zulu, have celebrated his tribe in T-shirt slogans and chants.
“Tribalism is the most serious danger to our country and to our people,” Lekota said.
He said the ANC leadership had violated the principle of equality before the law by calling for a political solution to the charges against Zuma.
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