Cape Town — The forthcoming national conference of South Africa's ruling African National Congress, where the party will elect a new leader, should not be seen as "the beginning and the end of everything," President Thabo Mbeki told the nation on Wednesday night.

Mbeki was taking part in a special phone-in show on radio stations operated by the country's public broadcaster, the SA Broadcasting Corporation. The broadcast came amid deep divisions between Mbeki's supporters and the principal challenger to his leadership, the party's deputy president, Jacob Zuma.

Mbeki said on the show that protagonists in the party "must not see themselves as enemies" and that "all of the structures of the ANC ... have the right to make nominations... We must accept [the] process that come[s] out of that..."

After the conference, he added, there "will be a tomorrow … there must be an ANC."   Those campaigning should conduct themselves in a manner which recognises that "we have a responsibility to the future."

Zuma has emerged as the front-runner in the race, according to voting figures from party branches, and the SABC has come under fire for giving Mbeki the airtime. The South African Communist Party, which is in alliance with the ANC, said the broadcast was "nothing but a blatant abuse of the resources of the public broadcaster to, essentially, support a faction in the ANC…"

The SABC replied that they had invited other potential candidates, including Zuma, and "their offices have said that they will come back to us..." The broadcaster has been given exclusive rights to transmit footage from the conference, leading to unhappiness among other broadcasters.