Jacob Zuma has called them snakes and, for their disloyalty, “bigamists”. The leaders of a breakaway faction of the African National Congress should take that as a compliment. It is a sign that Mr Zuma, the ANC leader and South Africa’s likely future president, is taking seriously their bid to create a viable opposition ahead of next year’s polls. This marks the most significant split in the country’s ruling party since the end of white minority rule. It could also prove the most welcome development to emerge from the bitter power struggle between Mr Zuma and Thabo Mbeki, which culminated in Mr Mbeki’s humiliating resignation as president in September.

Fourteen years after coming to power, the ANC has been developing symptoms familiar to other liberation movements that have monopolised the political terrain. The rebels contend that the party’s internal democracy is eroding and that, in their bid to quash corruption charges against Mr Zuma, his supporters are willing to undermine the judiciary. Existing opposition parties are mainly restricted in their appeal and influence to whites and people of mixed race. The development of a credible multiracial alternative to challenge the ANC’s overwhelming majority in parliament is overdue. The task of creating one out of the current rebellion, however, is formidable.