At the same time, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was the most outspoken internal critic of white minority government, said South Africa had become a virtual one-party state and he would welcome the creation of an effective opposition.

Archbishop Tutu said he would probably not vote in next year's general election because of the "brutality" with which president Thabo Mbeki was removed from office.

The decision to form a breakaway ANC was taken at a secret meeting in Johannesburg last Friday, according to newspaper reports. They differed on when the party would be launched, the earliest being tomorrow, and there were voices cautioning that the dissidents may decide to fight within the existing party.

Vicious public rows between prominent ANC officials have stripped the party of the glamour it held as a liberation movement fighting white rule.