The ruling ANC will oppose the name of the breakaway party, Congress of the People, led by its former chairperson Terror Lekota, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.

"If they register their name with the IEC [Independent Electoral Commission], that's when the opposition will start," said African National Congress spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi.

The ANC national working committee said in a statement it decided the ANC needed to protect its heritage.

"With regard to the attempt of a group led by Mbhazima Shilowa and Mosiuoa Lekota to call themselves 'Congress of the People', the NWC decided that the ANC has a responsibility to protect the history of the organisation.

"The ANC will therefore oppose any attempt by any persons to appropriate the political heritage of the ANC to advance their own political ambitions."

The statement said the Congress of the People in 1955 was "where the Freedom Charter was adopted after ANC volunteers — together with volunteers from the South African Indian Congress, the Congress of Democrats and the Coloured Peoples Congress — had collected and collated the views of thousands of South Africans."

It was an "important and iconic event" in the life of the ANC.

"The treason charges brought against ANC leaders in 1956 derived from the decisions taken at the Congress of the People."

Lekota, former defence minister, and former Gauteng premier Shilowa are launching a breakaway party on 16 December.

The new organisation has struggled to find an appropriate name.

First, it appeared to call itself the South African National Congress — but abandoned that name after it became clear that the African National Congress would object to a name similar to its own.

It then announced that its name was the South African Democratic Congress, but was forced to go back to the drawing board when it discovered that a party of that name had already been registered with the Independent Electoral Commission.

Shilowa finally announced on Thursday that the party would be known as the Congress of the People.

A spokesperson for the Independent Electoral Commission was not immediately available to say if the new party had registered itself yet.

Sapa