Africa

The so-called Shikota Movement of ANC dissidents met this past weekend to continue the process of forming a new political party, the South African Democratic Congress, or Congress of the People. The end result was an announcement that the new party will launch officially on December 16, South Africa’s Day or Reconciliation (and once the Afrikaners’ Day of the Vow) and that it plans to contest the 2009 elections.

Jacob Zuma, who still likely stands to lose the most from the challenge of the dissident party, dismisses its members as “bigamists.”  Just as the Polokwane conference in December 2007 guaranteed  that 2008 would be among the most lively and contentious on record in South African politics, so too does the formation of the new dissident party with their promise to challenge the ANC promise that 2009 will be a contentious one.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 4:47 pm and is filed under Politics, ANC, Jacob Zuma. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.