S.African president dismisses talk of ANC split

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African President Kgalema Motlanthe dismissed speculation that the ruling ANC was heading for a split after the party pressured his predecessor Thabo Mbeki to resign.

Tensions have been rising in the ANC since it forced Mbeki to step down last month over allegations he abused his power, creating political uncertainty in Africa's biggest economy.

Motlanthe said it was highly unlikely that a breakaway party of Mbeki loyalists would be formed.

"No, I really don't believe there is much substance to these stories. I don't believe any of the ministers who are steeped in ANC traditions of struggle will sign up for a breakaway party," he said in an interview with South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper published on Friday.

"But even if there was a breakaway party I don't think it could challenge the presently ruling ANC."

ANC leader Jacob Zuma is widely expected to become president after a general election due around April next year. The party deposed Mbeki over allegations of political interference in Zuma's corruption case.

Foreign investors are eager to determine whether Motlanthe and Zuma will stick to Mbeki's pro-business policies.

Motlanthe again moved to reassure them that economic policy would not change and he would not be influenced by leftist allies in the powerful COSATU trade union federation and South African Communist Party.

Asked if his trade union background would make him more sympathetic to those groups, Motlanthe said:

"No. The question is whether the policies they want to pursue are feasible, necessary and valid," he said.

South Africa's former defence minister has accused the ANC of stifling dissent and flouting the rule of law, the sharpest attack yet on the divided party by allies of Mbeki.

Newspapers published an open letter from ex-Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, alongside a blunt response from pro-Zuma Transport Minister Jeff Radebe.

"DANGER TO DEMOCRACY"

Lekota, an Mbeki loyalist, said the ANC had purged dissidents, flouted the rule of law in Zuma's corruption case and turned a blind eye to what he termed "delinquent" and "undemocratic" behaviour by pro-Zuma elements in the party.

"This state of affairs leaves me and many other comrades, no doubt, with a clear sense that our membership of the organisation is an endorsement of practices that are dangerous to the democracy that many people in our country struggled to bring into being," Lekota wrote.

Radebe, writing on behalf of the ANC leadership, responded: "Put bluntly, you and those who share your views are giving notice to leave the ANC."

The transport minister noted that the ANC had in the past been forced to expel members who had outgrown the party or lacked discipline. "We hope we have not reached that stage in your case," he told Lekota.

The exchange capped a week in which key ANC and government officials, including powerful Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, have dismissed the possibility that the party, in power since the end of apartheid in 1994, was heading for a split.

Lekota, who resigned as defence minister last week after Mbeki's removal, has been touted as among those most likely to form a breakaway party that could contest elections scheduled for next year. He has denied that he is leaving the ANC.

"If there are disgruntled leaders they should draw the correct lessons from the past few years and use that to rebuild the ANC into the powerful mass movement it always was," said Motlanthe.

(Additional reporting by Paul Simao; editing by Andrew Roche)