English/Nat
A new political party was formally launched in South Africa Sunday.
The People's Progressive Party, led by a former ANC official, wants the political bickering between Nelson Mandela's African National Congress and Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party to stop and all parties to work together towards a new South Africa.
Buthelezi issued a bitter list of grievances against the African National Congress Sunday, calling for nonviolent protest against Nelson Mandela's governing party.
Speaking at the launch of South Africa's newest political party Malebane-Metsing warned of the threat to South Africa's stability caused by political infighting.
SOUNDBITE:
The peace that all South Africans worked for so steadfastly since 1990 is dangerously threatened by the emergence of political intolerance. Intimidation and a growing lack of integrity that is now displayed by the leadership of the A-N-C and the I-F-P in scuffles
SUPER CAPTION Rocky Malebane-Metsing, president, Peoples Progressive Party
He said the new party would strive to coexist peacefully with its opponents, putting South Africa first.
Feuding between the A-N-C and Inkatha - the country's two largest black groups - already has killed more than 20,000 people in the past decade
SOUNDBITE:
We ask the A-N-C and the Inkatha Freedom Party to put the lives of our people above their apparent zeal to prove to each other which party is the most stubborn, strongest or powerful of the two. Democracy demands that even the most awkward view even if it comes from a minority must be given a hearing and a chance.
SUPER CAPTION Rocky Malebane-Metsing, president, Peoples Progressive Party
A power-sharing dispute has deepened the gulf between the two parties since South Africa's first all-race election in April 1994.
Inkatha, which controls the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government, wants regional autonomy. The A-N-C, which controls the national government, argues for strong central authority.
SOUNDBITE:
There is a growing number of South Africans who are no longer prepared to succumb to the mesmerization of political monotheism, intimidation as well as the posturing of grandeur and the illusion of the omnipotence of the African National Congress.
SUPER CAPTION Rocky Malebane-Metsing, president, Peoples Progressive Party
But asked what alternative his new party would offer people, he only said "The alternative we offer is the party. We are taking the people
along with us."
Party members decided to adopt the name of Malebane-Metsing's previous People's Progressive Party.
The old P-P-P was involved in an attempted coup against former Bophuthatswana President Lucas Mangope in 1988 but the uprising was crushed by the former South African Defence Force.
