Kingdom Mabuza

Kingdom Mabuza

Pan Africanist Congress breakaway group, the Pan Africanist Movement, says it has not been motivated by the ANC split.

PAM acting president Thami Ka Plaatjie told Sowetan yesterday that members of the Congress of the People (Cope) had an opportunity to raise their grievances within structures of the ANC but decided to "cowardly abandon the ship".

"We were forced out of the PAC by its president Letlapa Mphahlele and his cahoots. We had no opportunity to contest his dictatorship tendencies," Ka Plaatjie said.

He cited the suspension of the PAC constitution and the disbanding of the democratically elected national executive committee by Mphahlele in September last year.

"The leadership under Mphahlele kept postponing the conference that would have been used as a platform to oppose his decisions to suspend the constitution and the purging of PAC members without affording them an opportunity to defend themselves," he said.

"We could not raise issues within acceptable PAC structures, hence we convened a PAC congress which the court ruled against.

"We were left with no option but to form another party," he added. Ka Plaatjie said his party would target rural communities "ignored by most parties".

The party was launched at the weekend in Bloemfontein. An elective congress will be held in December.

PAC spokesman Mfanelo Skwatsha said the party had written to the IEC objecting to the use of the PAM name.

"We will defend the use of the PAC name and we will not be derailed from our focus to perform well in the coming elections," said Skwatsha.