Johannesburg - Disaffected members of South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) loyal to ousted former president Thabo Mbeki announced plans to form a splinter ANC faction that would challenge the party in upcoming general elections.

Addressing a press conference in Johannesburg, former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota, flanked by his former deputy Mluleki George and other ANC members, said the ANC, under Jacob Zuma's leadership, had become mired in tribalism and disregard for the rule of law.

At the same time, he ruled out the formation of an entirely new party with no link to the powerful ANC brand, saying: "I have said to my comrades we cannot leave the ANC, we are the ANC because we are committed to the polices and principles of the ANC."

Lekota said the group, which he said had support from ANC members in all nine provinces, would hold a convention in the coming weeks to consult with people within and outside the ANC on "how to proceed to defend democracy in this country."

Asked whether the new formation, which has yet to be named, would challenge the ANC in elections slated for April or May, he said: "Of course yes we have to contest the elections next year."

Lekota is one of the 10 cabinet ministers and deputy ministers who quit after Mbeki was ordered by the ANC to step down as president in September over a court's insinuation that he had a hand in the decision to prosecute ANC leader Jacob Zuma for corruption.

ANC deputy leader Kgalema Motlanthe was sworn in as caretaker president until general elections slated for April or May. After the elections Zuma is expected to take over.

The emergence of a new party came as little surprise. The ANC has been split into Zuma and Mbeki factions since Mbeki fired Zuma as deputy president in 2005 on suspicion of corruption. Zuma rebounded to trounce Mbeki in an ANC leadership vote in 2007 before burying him as state president.

Lekota denied Mbeki's ouster was the catalyst for the new faction.

He said he was more troubled by the tribalism of Zuma's Zulu youth supporters - evident in t-shirts vaunting Zuma as a "100% Zulu boy".

"From its foundation, ANC leaders declared that tribalism is the most serious danger to our country and our people. Yet no condemnation (from party leaders), no action to stop it."

He also lashed out at Zuma supporters in the ANC Youth League for saying they would "kill" for Zuma and at the ANC for demanding a "political solution" to Zuma's legal woes.

Zuma has been twice charged with corruption in connection with a 1990 state arms deal. The charges were thrown out twice on a technicality.

"What has happened to the clause in the Freedom Charter (ANC's constitution) that all shall be equal before the law," Lekota demanded.

Analysts say the splinter group is unlikely to do much harm to the ANC come election time. The party of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela has a more than two-thirds majority in parliament. The new group also comprises no real ANC heavyweights. Lekota's slavish loyalty to Mbeki had made him a figure of derision in the party. (dpa)