Offshoot of Venerable ANC Officially Formed in S. Africa

Congress of the People, Ruling Party Hold Dueling Rallies Just Miles Apart

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa, Dec. 16 -- This college town has been a hive of political activity for the past few days. On Tuesday, it felt more like the hub of a family feud.

On one side of the city, thousands of delegates of a new breakaway political party, the Congress of the People, donned yellow T-shirts and capped their first conference with a jubilant rally at a cricket stadium. Their leaders vowed to chart a course of freer debate and more respectable leadership than in the party they had abandoned, the ruling African National Congress.

In a dusty township stadium a few miles away, even more people gathered for another rally -- in support of the ANC. Also clad in yellow, the crowd members swayed as their leader danced and sang and assured them that theirs was the only party that could deliver.

The new party, known as COPE, with its promises of a new direction, is expected to pose the biggest challenge yet to ANC dominance ahead of general elections in the spring. Part of its appeal lies in its leaders, most of whom are former ANC heavyweights. But the deep ties between the two parties, some observers say, have so far made them seem like estranged siblings rather than distinct alternatives.

At COPE's official launch Tuesday, leaders promised a "political home" for all of South Africa's racial groups, an end to corruption, an expanded economy and renewed respect for democratic institutions -- a veiled reference to ANC leader Jacob Zuma, whose supporters called for a "political solution" outside of the courts as he battled corruption charges.

"When there is a systematic attack on the values that define us as a nation, the Congress of the People will always hold hands with all South Africans to defend the values that define us as a nation," Mosiuoa Lekota, a former defense minister who led the breakaway, said in a speech after he was named COPE's leader. "We have taken this stand because we are the party of the future."

Only time will tell the chances and staying power of the new party, which grew out of a power struggle between supporters of Zuma, a left-leaning populist, and former president Thabo Mbeki, a free-market proponent who was forced from office by the ANC in September.

Never before, though, has an opposition party been stacked with so many well-known former ANC figures.

On Tuesday, legendary cleric and anti-apartheid activist Allan Boesak joined its ranks, to the delight of shrieking COPE delegates.

COPE pledges to abandon the liberation rhetoric favored by the ANC, yet its leaders still call each other comrade. It vows to reject the politics of personality -- another reference to Zuma, whose zealous supporters revere him -- but COPE delegates sing hymnlike songs about Lekota and other leaders. It condemns corruption but recruited Boesak, who has been convicted of fraud and theft.

"In substance, in my view, COPE is an ANC outside the ANC," said Prince Mashele, a political analyst at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria.

In a news conference Tuesday, Lekota insisted that the party is "not a rehash of the ANC." He said the differences would become clear when COPE outlines its policies next month.