ANC dissidents hold convention
The 5,000 delegates are expected to announce today that they will form a breakaway party. Leaders of all the main opposition parties speak in support of the group.
Reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa — It had all the oomph of a gathering of South Africa's ruling African National Congress: the haunting political songs, the swaying dancers leaping into the aisles, the cries for power: "Amandla!" All that was missing was ANC President Jacob Zuma and his campaign song, "Bring Me My Machine Gun."
Thousands came from all over South Africa on Saturday for a national convention of ANC dissidents, marking a political shift that poses the biggest threat to the party's dominance since it came to power in the first post-apartheid election in 1994.
About 5,000 delegates, most of them former ANC members, packed the hall here in a mass repudiation of Zuma and his allies, who took over the party nearly a year ago. Today the dissidents, incensed over the recent ousting of South African President Thabo Mbeki, were expected to announce that they will form a breakaway political party in December.
An emerging coalition of South Africa's many opposition parties could prove a serious challenge to the ANC. In the packed hall, the leaders of all the main opposition parties spoke in support of the breakaway convention, to jubilant cheers.
"When we look back on this day with the hindsight of history, this convention could be a turning point in our democracy," Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said as the crowd shouted, "Zille! Zille!"
"Coalitions can work. They build bridges. They take us into the future. They don't trap us in the past," she said.
Patricia de Lille, leader of the Independent Democrats, said the convention marked the breaking of the ANC's political dominance.
"The once-proud liberation movement has lost its way. The values, the visions and the ideals of the struggle have been forgotten," she said.
The ANC's dirty linen has come tumbling out with the split: Convention delegates complained that after the Zuma camp took over the ANC, everyone else was shut out.
"If you're not a member of the Zuma camp and you say something against them, they'll chase you away," said Lulamile Ndala, 44, of Eastern Cape province. He said the Zuma camp wanted to control every position in the party, from leaders of residents' organizations right up to the presidency.
"They are chasing us out. They call us traitors. That's not democracy. That's not what we were fighting for," said Phuthuma Kahlana, 25, also from the Eastern Cape.
