WORLD> Africa
South Africa: Opposition party has new leader
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-17 07:59

South Africa's new Congress of the People party named former defense minister Mosiuoa Lekota as its leader yesterday and said it would stand against the ruling African National Congress (ANC) on a pro-business platform.

COPE, founded two months ago by ANC defectors close to former South African president Thabo Mbeki, represents the biggest challenge to the ANC since it took power at the end of apartheid in 1994.

"The history of South Africa will never be the same," Lekota told two thousand cheering delegates as he accepted the party's top leadership post at a conference in Bloemfontein. "We have taken this step because we are the party of the future."

Lekota, who resigned as a minister in September after the ANC ousted Mbeki, said the new party would launch its election campaign in mid-January. He said maintaining economic growth would be the linchpin of COPE's program.

COPE seeks to capitalize on anxiety among middle class voters and business over the growing influence of trade unions and Communists in the ANC, which traditionally portrays itself as representative of all South Africans.

The left has thrown its support solidly behind the ANC and its leader, Jacob Zuma.