'Campaign will be interesting'

2009-01-10 22:20

Johannesburg - The ANC on Saturday launched its campaign for an election that could see the party of the anti-apartheid struggle face a serious challenge from a breakaway group.

ANC leader Jacob Zuma rallied tens of thousands of supporters in East London, in the south of the country, packed into a stadium that was a sea of yellow with people wearing the party's T-shirt.

"Comrades, it is my honour and privilege to officially launch the 2009 ANC Election Manifesto!" Zuma told the crowd.

"The most important task of the beginning of the year is to ensure that the ANC returns a decisive election victory," the 66-year-old leader said of the poll expected to be held in the first half of the year.

Standing in front of a banner declaring "Working together, we can do more," Zuma outlined the priorities for the next five years: job creation, education, health, rural development, land reform and the fight against crime and corruption.

15 years of experience

He also said South Africa would work to find solutions in the continent's current hot spots: from Zimbabwe and Somalia to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The ANC has been in power for 15 years since the end of the country's white-minority apartheid rule.

But for the first time it faces a serious challenge from the Congress of The People (Cope), set up in December by disillusioned former ANC activists.

Zuma acknowledged as much in a speech to supporters at a gala dinner Friday in East London marking the party's 97th anniversary.

"We can expect this campaign to be robust and interesting," he said, while describing the ANC's election manifesto as "the product of 15 years of experience".

Zuma is seen as the front-runner for the presidency after winning control of the ANC from political rival Thabo Mbeki - who had earlier sacked him as deputy president - during the party's conference in December 2007.

Mbeki himself, while still an ANC member, turned down an invitation from the ANC to attend Saturday's manifesto launch.

Eastern Cape, where Saturday's gathering took place, is home territory for Nelson Mandela and other legendary figures in the anti-apartheid struggle.

But some ANC supporters there have already declared their allegiance to the new party, and it is where the Cope has chosen to launch its own manifesto later this month.

Meetings of the new party have been regularly disrupted by ANC supporters, but Cope challenged Zuma on Saturday with a rally in his home province of Kwazulu Natal attended by several hundred people.

- AFP