The ruling African National Congress will not attend a convention by a dissident faction aimed to launch a rival party to contest next year's elections, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The invitation was floated by Mbhazima Shilowa, former head of the country's richest province, Gauteng, and one of several influential ANC members to quit office after the party ousted Thabo Mbeki from the presidency last month.
"The new party is expected to take the social democrat route and to exploit technology to the full in its campaign and recruitment process," Mbhazima, who resigned from the ANC earlier this month, told the Sunday Independent. "Mobile phone text messages, websites including Facebook and other social forums would be used for discussions and recruiting," he added.
All parties would be invited to the faction's convention next month to launch the new party, Mbhazima said, which "would target young, upwardly mobile professionals but at the same time focus on the poor and the working class." But ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe told the newspaper his party was not willing to accept the invitation. "We can't be invited by some faction. We can't legitimise a faction," he was quoted as saying.
Former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota, who is leading the dissidents' faction, has been holding meetings around the country to mobilise support for the November 2 convention. The meetings have been disrupted by angry ANC members who accuse him of being a power hungry rebel.
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