By Stella Mapenzauswa
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A breakaway faction of South Africa's ruling ANC on Sunday accused the party of mounting a campaign of intimidation against its supporters.
Public servants have been threatened with dismissal if they offered support for the new Congress of the People (COPE), its interim chairman, Mosiuoa Lekota, said.
COPE was formed two months ago by ANC defectors loyal to former South African President Thabo Mbeki and says it will challenge the ANC, now led Mbeki's rival Jacob Zuma, at national elections next year.
"Intimidation and paralysing fear is now gripping sections of our society," Lekota told delegates at a conference.
He compared it to the repression which prevailed under the apartheid system of racial segregation.
"Public servants now talk in whispers when they discuss COPE. They report that they risk their jobs if they are seen to befriend us. Tales of spying on each other, as under apartheid, on who attends COPE meetings, abound."
Lekota is a former defence minister who quit his post and the ruling party after Mbeki was ousted as South Africa's president earlier this year over charges that he interfered in a criminal case against Zuma.
He accused ANC leaders of inciting hatred against COPE.
"Songs threatening or encouraging the hatred of and the killing of COPE leaders have been composed and are sung at meetings," Lekota said.
COPE SCORES COURT VICTORY
Mbeki himself has not spoken directly about the new party, neither supporting it nor condemning it as many other senior ANC figures have done.
It is expected to adopt many of the policies pursued by the ANC government under Mbeki, including maintaining a strong state role to spur economic growth and reduce poverty and unemployment.
The movement, which says it has a membership of around 130,000, many of whom defected from the ruling party, scored a
victory against the ANC on Friday when a court ruled that it could use the name Congress of the People.
The ruling party, in power since the fall of apartheid in 1994, had objected to the name as it also refers to a 1955 political summit that laid the foundations of the anti-apartheid movement. The ANC attended that meeting.
The COPE conference, which runs to Tuesday, is expected to choose a leader and set out the party's policies and strategy for next year's election, expected in March 2009.
(Editing by Angus MacSwan)
