Mandela Joins Zuma At ANC Election Rally - ANC

Former South African President Nelson Mandela has joined ruling ANC leader Jacob Zuma at an electoral rally in a "historic show of confidence" ahead of an April 22 poll, the ANC said on Sunday.

In his first appearance at a campaigning event before the parliamentary vote, Mandela, 90, addressed a rally in Eastern Cape along with Zuma, the African National Congress (ANC) said.

The province is expected to be a main battleground in the election the ANC is widely expected to win, despite facing its first serious political challenge since the end of apartheid from COPE, a party made up of ANC defectors.

Elder statesman Mandela, who led his country out of apartheid, has steered clear of politics and power struggles that have hurt the ANC over the past few years.

His appearance alongside Zuma will be seen as an endorsement of the man who is expected to become president after the election, despite facing a revived corruption case that has dogged him for years.

""Nxamalala (Jacob Zuma) has already spoken. Mine (speech) is simply to greet you. Despite the rain, you have all come here in numbers to show your commitment to the ANC. May you (ANC) live forever. Long live the ANC," the ANC quoted Mandela as telling ANC supporters in the town of Idutywa.

The ANC said the rally attended by thousands was part of the party's election programme, focusing on its manifesto plans for rural development.

"They (people) have all been asking themselves on which side is the Mandela family. We would like to confirm that the Mandela family is in the ANC and will die members of the ANC," the party quoted Mandela's grandson Mandla as telling the crowds.

POLITICAL LANDSCAPE

In an apparent reference to leaders of COPE, who left the ANC after it pushed Zuma's rival Thabo Mbeki out of the presidency, Zuma said: "He (Mandela) has taught us that when there are challenges or differences in opinion within the organisation, don't run away but stay inside to resolve them."

While the Congress of the People (COPE) party is not expected to win the election, it could break the ANC's two-thirds majority in parliament, stopping it from pushing through whatever legislation it wants.

COPE has opened up the political landscape in what some critics have described as akin to a one-party state. But investors are concerned about uncertainty in Africa's biggest economy.

Mandela's appearance came one day after South Africa's opposition Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) launched its election manifesto, promising to prevent the country from becoming what it called an autocracy under the ANC.

Violence erupted earlier this month after the ANC held a rally in northern Zululand, a key electoral area for the party and the IFP, the second largest opposition party.

ANC buses were stoned and a car carrying MP Prince Zeblon Zulu and two women was shot at, police said.

Tensions between the ANC and Inkatha go back to the apartheid era when the two fought over control of KwaZulu-Natal, the traditional home of Zuma's Zulu tribe, in clashes that killed thousands.

There are no signs that violence on that scale could be repeated in the run-up to the April election but the latest unrest is another unsettling factor for investors.