And the walls came tumbling down ....

I know I know ... its the eve of the biggest election i've known ... and i'm still blogging about Africa? And not even about the crisis in Congo?

But actually - i think this story is also going to be cataclysmic .... after months of rancour - the ANC has finally splintered - and this could mark the dawn of a new political landscape ....

The SADC (South African Democratic Congress) held its first convention in Johannesburg this weekend led by ex ANC defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota .... and has been heralded by the other opposition parties (importantly - none of whom are majority black).

"The once proud liberation movement has lost its way. The values, the visions and the ideals of the struggle have been forgotten ..."

Its a sentiment I've heard echoed increasingly in SA, and especially so since the ANC ignored the quagmire of sleaze and controversy surrounding Jacob Zuma .... and as the political megalith that is the ANC struggles to maneouvre itself from revolutionary movement to middle-of-road party of economic development and engine of the continent.

Scarily however - it seems as though some of this split is along tribal lines. The worst violence at the end of the apartheid era was not white on black .... but instead black-on-black in the notorious "township wars". Zulu against Xhosa. Beautifully but tragically depicted in the great memoir - The Bang Bang club (which btw is one of the most powerful books i've ever read)

It is of course too early for doom and gloom apocalyptic predictions. This may truly herald the dawn of multiparty democracy in South Africa ... and as the great black hope for the continent we can but hope.

But the lessons learned from Rwanda, Congo, Kenya amongst a long list of others serve as a sombre warning. One of the advantages of the ANC was that it had no obvious tribal affiliation (although each appointment is made with exacting racial precision for the correct ethnic recipe) - and the rape trial of Zuma last year showed what tensions simmer close to the surface.

It would be too unfair if after the evil of apartheid .... and then the scourge of HIV/AIDS .... that SA could then riven by political and ethnic strife. The imcomparable Archbishop Tutu once said of Mandela "How God must love South Africa to have given us such a priceless gift".... I pray for more Mandelas and Tutus so that this wonderful country can negotiate its course to a real multi-party democracy and ensure that the struggle hasn't all been in vain ....