Former struggle icon and fraudster Allan Boesak (63) on Tuesday became the latest high-profile figure to join the newly formed Congress of the People.

He announced his decision at the final session of Cope's three-day founding conference in Bloemfontein to thunderous applause from some 4000 delegates.

"Today my wife and I join the Congress of the People," he said.

In a long and rousing speech Boesak said he did not aspire to a prominent post in the new party, but would seek to serve South Africans in a way he could no longer do in good conscience in the ANC.

"I cannot serve in the ANC anymore because there are far too many things that make me uncomfortable, that would make it difficult to defend that image in public."

"Disappointments of today"

He said the ruling party had betrayed the hopes of South Africans and the birth of Cope marked a watershed in the country's politics. "The hopes of yesterday are still there but they have become the disappointments of today."

Cope could bring fresh optimism and unite South Africans, he said. "I look at you in all your rainbow splendour and I say to myself 'there has never been a time like today'."

Asked what position Boesak would be given in the party, Cope president Terror Lekota told reporters: "The matter has been tabled and will be dealt with by the national conference. We will make an announcement in due course."

Boesak rose to prominence in the 1980s as a churchman and a leader of the anti-apartheid United Democratic Front. He served a brief jail sentence in 2000 after being convicted of fraud and theft of over R1.5-million of donor funds.

Accused ANC of racism

A former head of the Geneva-based World Council of Reformed Churches, he has held senior positions in the NG Sendingkerk, and was a driving force behind its adoption of the prophetic Belhar Confesssion.

He resigned all posts in its successor, the Uniting Reformed Church, in October this year claiming dissatisfaction at the way the church was dealing with the issue of homosexuality.

In July this year he accused the African National Congress of entrenching racial hatred instead of preaching tolerance. In a public address in Cape Town, he said the party had "brought back the hated system of racial categorisation", and said affirmative action had in some cases taken on new forms of racial exclusion, throwing overboard the solidarity forged through years of struggle.

Sapa