The African National Congress has acted swiftly against the breakaway factions, led by Mosiuoa Lekota, by suspending Lekota and Lekota's former deputy, Mluleki George and threatening further disciplinary action. Lekota is purporting to be shocked and wronged, but that seems disingenuous. He effectively walked away from the party and promised that he was going to establish a rival to the ANC and has acted accordingly. What response could he possibly have expected?
Yet at the same time it seems untoward and even dangerous for the leaders of the ANC to be talking about “open warfare,” to be making what sound a lot like threats, and to try to assert that ANC dissidents have no right to split and form their own party. At times in the last few days the ANC's hierarchy has sounded chillingly Mugabe-esque in its hubris and some worry that the party is undermining its own hard-fought and hard-earned values and thus ignoring its responsibility to the country.
