Wyndham Hartley
13 October 2008
Cape Town — More senior African National Congress (ANC) members are expected this week to side with former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota's breakaway group as the rebels develop the momentum needed to hold a national convention.
This follows the tough talk from Lekota at a meeting in Langa, Cape Town, where 3000 unhappy ANC supporters gathered to hear him speak. Some at that meeting were from the Western Cape rebel group in the Dullah Omar region of the ANC which had its leadership corps disbanded three weeks ago.
It was a weekend of hard-line rhetoric from both the Lekota group and the Jacob Zuma leadership of the ANC with Lekota saying that the ANC leadership were using apartheid-style tactics to intimidate the dissidents.
This followed the kidnapping of his bodyguard and threats to his life and Lekota's . ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa also came out firing and was quoted in reports as saying they were "gatvol" with Lekota.
A source close to the dissidents said yesterday more pronouncements from senior members of the ANC would come this week - "the name of the game is to see who comes out of the woodwork". The source would not mention names.
Mbhazima Shilowa, who recently resigned as premier of Gauteng, told e.tv at the weekend that he would be making a statement during the week on his intentions. He is widely expected to throw his weight behind the Lekota rebels.
In the wake of the Langa meeting there were also reports of large numbers of ANC branches that would follow Lekota's lead.
City Press reported that 171 branches in Western Cape were ready to support the dissidents -- more than half of the branches in the Boland and Dullah Omar regions were included in the tally.
There are said to be more branches in Northern Cape that were disgruntled, particularly supporters of Neville Mompati who lost out in a bruising election battle with John Block. They are apparently poised to invite Lekota to address them.
In Limpopo, supporters of premier Sello Moloto are also set to join any breakaway.
Lekota told the Langa meeting that "Vlakplaas" (the base of apartheid death squads) was on the rise again. He was referring to the kidnapping of his bodyguard Sello Mpyaatona who was told by his masked and armed captors that his and Lekota's lives were on the line.
Lekota said that this was clear evidence that SA's democracy was in danger.
He called on the crowd to mobilise for a national convention that would decide whether there should be a split from the ANC or not.
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