Mosiuoa Lekota formally launched the Congress of the People (Cope) on Sunday with a promise to serve South Africans better than the ANC and said the ruling party's response to its new rival smacked of apartheid era intimidation.

"Intimidation and paralysing fear is now gripping sections of our society — and I mean fear identical to that of the John Vorster and PW Botha era," he told some 3500 delegates sporting yellow t-shirts in Bloemfontein.

Lekota — who defected from the ANC in late October to form the splinter group — said the ruling party was carrying out a witchhunt on former colleagues.

He said: "Men and women with whom we worked and shared jokes now have to look the other way when we chance upon each other along the corridors of state buildings... they risk their jobs if they are seen to befriend us."

Singing, cries of "Amandla" and calls to secure votes for Cope in next year's elections rang out at the launch, with former Independent Democrats deputy leader Simon Grindrod declaring: "The train is now leaving the station and every South African should get onto it.

"A terrible beauty is being born"

"Your job is to go back to your constitution and prepare for voting," he added.

Quoting Irish poet William Butler Yeats, Lekota said: "A terrible beauty is being born."

Lekota said the new party would bring voters who had lost faith in democracy since 1994 back to the polls for next year's elections.

"Where many had lost the energy to go and register to vote, they declare that they are now on the comeback trail," he said.

The birth of the new party has sent a message to the outside world that South Africa would not become a one party democracy.

"What doubts had begun to develop on the prospects of South African democracy, have now been overtaken by a cautious optimism and confidence that here, unlike in many other countries... exists a resilience sufficient to sustain the momentum of our promised future."

Mbhazima Shilowa, chairing the Bloemfontein meeting, urged delegates to work hard to earn the support of all South Africans ahead of the 2009 elections.

"We will work and tell them about our ideologies... and what are the distinct features between us and other political parties.

"They must know who we are... and we will earn their support."

ANC accused of intimidation

Shilowa also accused the ANC and its alliance partners of intimidation and warned trade union federation Cosatu not to stop members from leaving the ruling party for Cope.

"I want to say to Cosatu that the basic tenet of trade unionism is freedom of association," he said.

The launch has sparked a political counter offensive by the ANC in Bloemfontein that will bring Jacob Zuma to the city on Tuesday, but Cope's national spokesman Phillip Dexter shrugged it off.

"It's democracy," he said. "Let them carry on. It won't change anything."

Sapa