The ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) will on Wednesday meet to discuss the suspension of its former chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota, who has threatened to start a breakaway party.

"The meeting starts at 2pm in Johannesburg," said ANC spokesperson Jessie Duarte.

The suspension of Lekota, the former defence minister, and his former deputy, Mluleki George, was decided by the ANC national working committee on Monday.

Lekota is rumoured to be starting a new opposition party with dissidents in the ANC who disagree with the leaders elected at Polokwane last December who have since removed Thabo Mbeki as president.

The ANC has also suspended five senior regional members in the Western Cape for undermining party unity and discipline.

The five members included Mbulelo Ncedana and Ebrahim Sawant, the axed secretary and deputy secretary of the ANC's Dullah Omar region in the Western Cape.

Ncedana was among the organisers of a public meeting of disgruntled ANC members in Langa, Cape Town, on Saturday which was addressed by Lekota.

Mbeki resigned on 21 September after the NEC decided to remove him from office.

The decision came after a ruling by Judge Chris Nicholson that he could not exclude the possibility of political interference in the decision to prosecute ANC leader Jacob Zuma on fraud and corruption charges.

Sapa