Johannesburg - South Africa was gearing up Friday for a radical shake-up in the country's political landscape as a split in the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the party of liberation from apartheid, came within days of fruition.

ANC members and former members who disagree with the direction the party is taking under current leader Jacob Zuma began arriving in Johannesburg Friday from across the country for a weekend convention that will lay the foundations for a new party.

The party - which does not yet have a name but is dubbed Shikota after its founders, former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota and the former premier of South Africa's richest province, Gauteng, Mbhazima Shilowa - will be formally launched on December 16.

According to the organizers, 2,000 people have registered online to attend a two-day convention to decide the direction of the new party starting Saturday.

A few thousand more people are expected to be bussed in from across the country to join the convention, which is inspired by the 1955 Kliptown Congress, at which the Freedom Charter, the ANC's constitution, was drafted.

The 96-year-old ANC, the oldest liberation-movement-turned- political-party on the continent, has been rattled by the breakaway party, which comes just months ahead of general elections slated for April.

The new party is targeting middle-class voters turned off by the demagogic 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.

The split in the ANC had been looming for some time. The party has been divided into Zuma and Mbeki camps since the two men faced off for the party leadership in December 2007. Zuma won that vote. His supporters say the Mbeki-allied leaders of the new movement are merely sorely losers.

While the ANC is expected to easily win next year's elections, some other opposition parties see in a new party an opportunity to chip away at the ANC's more-than-two-thirds majority by forming alliances.

Former president Nelson Mandela, with whom the ANC is closely identified, is refusing to be drawn into the fight, despite attempts by both sides to secure his endorsement. (dpa)