The ANC has suspended a former defence minister who threatened to form a breakaway party, officials said on Tuesday, deepening the split in the party that led the fight against apartheid.

Mosiuoa Lekota, who resigned as defence minister last month, threatened last week to form a new party that could challenge the African National Congress (ANC) in elections next year.

He accused the ANC of abandoning its democratic ideals with the sacking of former president Thabo Mbeki, who was locked in a long-running power struggle with party boss Jacob Zuma.

Zuma unseated Mbeki as party leader last December, in a dramatic upset for the man who succeeded democracy icon Nelson Mandela as South Africa's second president since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Party leaders issued a statement late Monday saying that Lekota and his former deputy Mluleki George had been suspended with immediate effect.

They will also be hauled before a disciplinary committee, which could take further action.

Zuma sternly warned that the ANC would "act very decisively to rid the movement of factionalism," in a speech to a union meeting.

"We would like to warn all who intend to join the campaign to undermine and divide the ANC," he said. "History has been extremely unkind to those who break away from the ANC."

Also Tuesday, the party suspended five provincial leaders who had organised meetings for Lekota in Cape Town last weekend, saying that they had been "undermining and betraying the organisation."

"The ANC will take similar action against any other members who have indicated in words or action their intention to establish a party in opposition to the ANC," the party said in a statement.

Zuma and other ANC leaders plan to meet Wednesday to discuss the breakaway movement, party spokesman Ishmael Mnisi told AFP.

Lekota and George are loyal to Mbeki, who was forced by the party to resign as the nation's president on September 20, just months before the end of his term.

Lekota, a former ANC chairman, has since been mobilising support for the splinter group. Mbeki has not made any public comments on the possible split.

Lekota told local television Tuesday that he was yet to be formally informed of his suspension.

"I do not believe it... I want to wait until I get a letter from the ANC. The constitution of the ANC says that no member can be punished before you hold a hearing," he said.

The ANC spokesman said Lekota would be formally notified later Tuesday.

South Africa's new President Kgalema Motlanthe, the party's deputy leader, has said that no group could pose a serious challenge to the ANC, which dominates the country's political life.

"Even if there was a breakaway party I don't think it could challenge the presently ruling ANC," he recently told a local newspaper.

Talk in South Africa of a split in the ANC has been circulating since its national conference last December when Zuma toppled Mbeki as ANC leader.

Zuma and his allies in the party then ordered Mbeki to step down as president last month after a court ruling implied he had interfered in the prosecution of corruption charges against Zuma.

AFP