Doing the Splits.

I doubt that any breakaway party from the ANC will seriously harm the outcome of next year's general election, but I do rather look forward to hearing from an opposition party rising from the ranks of the ANC.

I feel that many ANC supporters have voted for the ANC on the basis of loyalty towards the Struggle, rather than in support of their performance and service delivery. However, in the event of a breakaway, ANC supporters will be able to make choices based on performance, without feeling that they're being disloyal.

As much as Zuma may shout about "Disloyalty To The Party", those breaking away are no less faithful to the struggle than are those who remain. They were all in it together until this point. The disagreements arise from differences of opinion in respect of where the ANC is headed, how it is led and how it has behaved or performed.

This makes things very interesting for the country as a whole. Criticisms flung back and forth between factions from the same party is likely to bring a number of crawlies out of the woodwork into the light - and force at least a few more people to make decisions they couldn't - or didn't have to - make before.

Events between now and next year's elections will be very interesting indeed.