Many of the ANC dissidents who plan to form a new party will continue to revere Thabo Mbeki even though he remains a member of what is now their political opposition, former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa said on Sunday.

"Thabo Mbeki, just like former leaders of the ANC, is not our enemy. Some if not many of the people who go with us revere Thabo Mbeki," he said in Johannesburg.

"We don't regard him [Nelson Mandela] as the enemy."

Shilowa was addressing a media briefing in the wake of Saturday's Sandton convention, where thousands of delegates sang songs in praise of Mbeki, who was axed from the presidency of the country by ANC leaders in September.

In a letter to ANC leader Jacob Zuma last month, Mbeki said the leaders of the movement "have not engaged me in any of the actions they are taking, to secure my approval or otherwise".

But he also asked that no-one should use his name to promote partisan causes "including how the 2009 ANC election campaign will be conducted".

"Underground member"

Shilowa said people assumed Mbeki was an "underground member" of the new movement.

The ex-president, he said, could not be an underground member and still maintain he did not want anyone to use his name in the election campaign.

Former deputy defence minister Mluleki George told the briefing that movement leaders had advised people strongly not to discard their ANC t-shirts or membership cards.

"We said, you must understand where we come from. Our problem was not the ANC as an organisation, but the fact that it had been hijacked.

"So we said to our people don't return the t-shirts, keep those membership cards. That's part of your heritage, you can say in this year I was a member of the ANC."

Sapa