Like other patriots and democrats, we have bemoaned the absence of a credible opposition party to check the all-powerful ruling ANC.

Like other patriots and democrats, we have bemoaned the absence of a credible opposition party to check the all-powerful ruling ANC.

We subscribe to the view, articulated by Lord Acton, that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Hence we lament that the Pan Africanist Congress and Azapo, parties with a rich struggle history, have been weakened by factionalism.

Their infighting has led them to waste too much energy on fighting imaginary enemies in their ranks, thus ignoring their historical mandate of freeing the masses from apartheid's shackles and its associated social ills.

History is bound to judge harshly such leaders for having condemned once-vibrant organisations to virtual irrelevance in South Africa's body politic.

So bad has been the paralysis among organisations to the left of the ANC that they have failed to capitalise on its spectacular blunders.

Now it seems that the leaders of Azapo and its two smaller splinter groups - the Socialist Party of Azania and the Black People's Convention - have finally woken up to the reality that they stand no chance of winning the confidence of the masses individually.

It remains to be seen if the the leaders of the three Azapos - Mosibudi Mangena, Lybon Mabasa and Nkosi Molala - will this time overcome their petty ideological and personal differences and succeed in building a formidable organisation that could seriously contend for power in the 2009 elections.

They face a mammoth task to win back even the legion of committed but inactive adherents of black consciousness who deserted the movement, thanks to their pointless bickering.

Then, they have to sell their policies to a more sceptical public that has become accustomed to supporting the ANC in the absence of a credible alternative that would not betray the South African revolution.