Washington  - Addressing a 4,500-strong convention in Johannesburg, the leader of a group of breakaway members of South Africa's ruling African National Congress accused the former liberation movement of reviving the "terrible legacy" of apartheid.

Former ANC chairman and ex-defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota told the delegates - who will this weekend lay the foundations for a party to challenge the ANC in elections next year - that the 96-year-old party had come to resemble the racist white regime that preceded it.

The corruption, disregard for the rule of law and divisiveness that characterized the apartheid regime was again the order of the day, he warned.

"The threat the nation faces is that we will see the reaffirming of the important elements of this terrible legacy (of apartheid) under new masters."

The firebrand former ANC stalwart is one of a number of senior party members who have resigned from the party in order to form a rival party that will be formally launched on December 16.

The party does not yet have a name, but is dubbed Shikota after Lekota and the former premier of South Africa's richest province, Gauteng, Mbhazima Shilowa, another heavyweight behind the split.

Disgruntled ANC members and former members travelled from across the country to attend the convention, which is styled on the 1955 Kliptown Congress, at which the Freedom Charter, the ANC's constitution, was drafted.

The ANC has been visibly rattled by the split. ANC youth members have tried to disrupt previous "Shikota" meetings in recent weeks but there were no spoilers at Saturday's convention, held in Sandton business district.

The mood was festive with delegates waving tiny South African flags surging to their feet regularly to sing songs in defiance of the ANC, put to old ANC melodies.

The new party is targeting middle-class voters turned off by what they see as the populist slide of the party under Zuma.

Zuma's youth supporters have vowed "to kill" to defend their leader from allegations of corruption while the female wing of the ANC has labelled party rebels "dogs."

Many South Africans also disagreed with the ANC's decision in September to axe Thabo Mbeki as president over a court inference of state interference in Zuma's corruption case. His ouster was seen as an unnecessary settling of scores.

While the ANC is still expected to easily win the elections slated for April, the new party is seen as likely to dent the party's more- than-two-thirds parliamentary majority.

Several opposition parties were present Sandton Saturday to witness the fragmentation of the ANC.

"People have come to new insights. That has to be welcomed," the leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance Helen Zille praised.

Stephen Banies, a father of four from Western Cape province, who renounced his ANC membership two weeks ago, said he did so for "a very simple reason. There is no use giving someone a drivers license if he's blind."

Zuma's lack of formal education and his myriad attempts to stave off his trial on corruption charges were some of the factors that made him unfit to lead, he said. (dpa)