Former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota's announcement that he intended to leave the ANC would lead him on a disastrous path, says Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.

"We are calling on them to reconsider their disastrous path they have chosen," he told a Police and Civil Right Unions conference on crime in Midrand on Wednesday.

Vavi said the Congress of SA Trade Unions "deeply regretted" the announcement made by Lekota that he was serving the party with divorce papers.

"The road that they have chosen can only go to an endless winter in the wilderness".

Vavi said that Lekota's actions — and those who had also agreed to resign from the party in the media — was a "pure publicity stunt".

He said accusing the ANC of veering away from the Freedom Charter, its traditions and principles, in an open discussion in society, would not succeed.

"In order to avoid engagement with the ANC on the matters, they chose to take a route of open letters and press conferences where the ANC would not be represented to counter the misinformation and lies that they [Lekota and others] continued to generate with press conferences."

The real reasons, Vavi said, for the resignations was that some members refused to embrace internal democracy and that they were not prepared to accept fair transparency and democratic processes in which they had previously participated.

Vavi argued that nine months after the Polokwane conference, some ANC members could not say they had suddenly discovered that some policies were not in line with their thinking.

A second reason would be their undying love and loyalty to former president Thabo Mbeki.

Thirdly, he said their actions showed ill-discipline of the worst kind as they could have aired their grievances within the structures of the ANC.

He said if they had been loyal to the ANC, they would have taken the opportunity to engage with it, and not with it through the media.

He said the formation of a new political party was a class action that emanated from a small section of South Africa's elite.

"They are not happy, apparently, with an ANC that is the home of the workers and the poor".

He called on all ANC members not to be misled by misinformation and lies that were being circulated in the media.

Sapa