Name muddle of SA breakaway party

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The registration of a breakaway party in South Africa has been delayed after the movement found that its proposed name was already taken.

The group, which is splitting from the ruling African National Congress, had been planning to register as the South African Democratic Congress on Monday.

The ruling party had already challenged the splinter group's first choice name, the South African National Congress.

The new party is led by the former defence minister, Mosiuoa Lekota.

The party has shaken the country's political landscape, but it remains unclear what it will call itself in elections next year, the BBC's Mpho Lakaje reports from Johannesburg.

When it went to register, it found there was a South African Democratic Congress already in existence.

T-shirts

Mr Lekota's group is now negotiating with that party, which has no seats in parliament and has indicated it may be willing to give up its name, our correspondent says.

The new party's steering committee is also expected to come up with a list of alternative names.

The splinter party is made up of people who left the governing ANC after Thabo Mbeki stepped down as president in September, following a power struggle with ANC leader Jacob Zuma.

More than 6,000 delegates attended a conference in Johannesburg to discuss establishing the new party this weekend, some of them wearing T-shirts reading South African National Congress.

But the governing ANC took the matter to court, complaining that the name was too similar to its own.

The ruling party says it is willing to drop the case if the new party adopts a different name.