Former president Thabo Mbeki is not invited to a convention this weekend that aims to organise a breakaway party from the ruling ANC, a faction leader said on Monday.

"We are not going to invite Mbeki or any other former leaders of this country," said Mbhazima Shilowa, who resigned from the African National Congress (ANC) early in October.

"There are perceptions out there that this faction is just a Mbeki front. That is not true, this is just us," he told a press conference.

The convention is set for Sunday in Johannesburg to pave the way for the official launch of the new party to contest next year's elections.

The new party will be launched on 16 December in Bloemfontein, a city where the ANC, Africa's oldest liberation movement, was established in 1912.

A public invitation

Former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota, who has been suspended by the ANC, said the public was invited to attend the convention.

"We are not only expecting our members to come from the ANC. We are going to be recruiting from different forms of society regardless of political association," Lekota said.

"Nothing is going to stand in our way of defending our democracy and freedom of our country," he added.

Lekota resigned as defence minister after the ANC forced Mbeki to step down as president last month, in the culmination of a long-fought power struggle with ruling party boss Jacob Zuma.

Mbeki's ouster exposed a rift within the party that spearheaded the struggle against apartheid and now dominated South African politics, gathering everyone from business chiefs to labourers.

AFP