South Africa's Mbeki Sees Party Faithful Rally to His Rival

POLOKWANE, South Africa, Dec. 16 -- Thousands of African National Congress activists who assembled here to elect their next party president responded to a 2 1/2 -hour speech by incumbent Thabo Mbeki with cheers, dancing and stirring songs of liberation.

But not for Mbeki. For his rival, Jacob Zuma.

The outcome of the contest between the two men will not be known until Monday or later. But repeatedly throughout the first day of the ruling party's five-day national conference, what seemed a clear majority of the 4,075 delegates expressed support for Zuma, whom Mbeki fired in 2005 because of allegations of corruption.

The most striking display came after Mbeki ended his marathon speech, in which he detailed what he described as significant economic and social progress during his 10 years as party president and more than eight as president of the country. He also lamented rising division and corruption within the ranks of the African National Congress -- echoing the essence of the allegations against Zuma without mentioning him by name.

"There are people who abuse their positions in government consciously, purposefully, systematically to engage in corrupt practices aimed at self-enrichment," Mbeki said.

But several seconds of applause for Mbeki was quickly overwhelmed by several minutes of cheers for Zuma. People belted out the liberation anthem "Bring Me My Machine Gun," which has become a potent symbol of political comeback for Zuma, a former guerrilla in the party's armed wing during apartheid.

"It was a message: Thank you. Your time is up. We're ready for a new leader," said Zuma supporter Pearl Luthuli, 30, who is from Zuma's home province of KwaZulu-Natal.

Mbeki, the son of Govan Mbeki, one of the ANC's most revered elders, has spent his entire adult life at elite levels of the party. He was the nation's deputy president under Nelson Mandela at the dawn of multiracial democracy in 1994. In 1997 Mbeki became president of the party, and in 1999, president of South Africa.

But a backlash has been rising against Mbeki, who is regarded as cerebral, aloof and intolerant of rivals. It began when he fired the popular Zuma as South African deputy president in 2005, shortly after Zuma's financial adviser was convicted of having a corrupt relationship with him.

Since then, Zuma has fought off charges both of corruption and of rape related to a sexual encounter with a family friend infected with HIV. Prosecutors have said they might file new corruption charges against him early in the new year. Zuma has said that if convicted he would step down, and he would by law be ineligible to run for president of the country during the next general election in 2009.

Even under this legal cloud, Zuma appeared relaxed Sunday, smiling frequently. He trounced Mbeki in regional nominating contests last month and, barring a last-minute shift, enjoys the support of a decisive majority of delegates gathered at the University of Limpopo for the national conference, which convenes every five years.

The delegates frequently were rowdy Sunday, cheering and jeering and shouting over party leaders attempting to control the flow of the convention. Drums, whistles and vuvuzelas -- plastic horns heard more often at soccer matches -- fueled the raucous quality of the conference's first day. Several times, party officials scolded the delegates, calling their behavior unbecoming of the party, and threatened to have offenders expelled.