But the party that ended white rule and delivered a model of multi-race democracy has been badly fractured by a bitter leadership race that culminates in a vote on Sunday.

South Africans have been treated to a steady diet of charge and counter-charge in the run-up to the African National Congress leadership decision.

Accusations that their president has become an autocrat and sides with his powerful friends at the expense of the nation. A former deputy president in the dock for rape. An arrest warrant for the national police chief. The health minister dubbed "Dr. Beetroot" for her alarming approach to AIDS.

"The childish mudslinging and character assassination is a great embarrassment to the country and South Africans, regardless of whether we support the ruling party or not," said Tendani Siala in a letter to the Sowetan newspaper.

The most controversial figure of all, ANC deputy leader Jacob Zuma who faced not only rape but corruption charges, looks set to win the race to become the party's next president. He was acquitted of rape and the corruption charges were thrown out on a technicality.

If Zuma defeats his rival South African President Thabo Mbeki, he is virtually assured the country's presidency in the 2009 general election because of the ANC'S electoral dominance.

RESIST PERSONALISING POLITICS

The ANC gathers Dec. 16-20 to select a new leader and set policy, a defining moment for a party experiencing one of the worst divisions in its 95-year history.

The infighting has become so intense the ANC has banned delegates from wearing T-shirts supporting rival candidates in the meeting.

Critics say rather than fighting each other, party leaders should be tackling widespread poverty, rampant crime and AIDS.

"We should, in the name of the democratic principles we have fought for, resist the temptation to personalise political parties into private kingdoms," a newspaper quoted prominent ANC member Mathews Phosa as saying in a speech this week.

If the party emerges with wider splits after the conference, analysts say the government could be crippled.

The leadership battle has not been drawn along policy lines. It's more a giant clash of personalities and rivalries.

Both men are ANC veterans.

Mbeki is a shrewd and tough strategist, more comfortable in small groups than in front of crowds. Zuma is seen as earthy and approachable, with a big draw among the people who feel they have not benefited from Mbeki's leadership.

Mbeki's policies have kept the business community confident that he is committed to strong economic growth and led to steady inflows of foreign capital. His opponents say he has failed to address social ills left by apartheid.

Zuma has not spelled out any new policies that he would pursue, though his support from the labour and communist flanks of the ANC and his populist rhetoric has raised fears he would shift the country to the left.

He has tried to reassure investors, both at home and abroad, that he will not make any sweeping changes to the centrist policies credited with fuelling an economic boom.

But Zuma, who Mbeki fired as his national deputy in 2005 after he was implicated in a graft scandal, may be recharged in the arms corruption scandal.

That raises the prospect that the country's future president could be jailed long before he is sworn in.

PARTY UNITED

Yet he is beaming with confidence in a remarkable political comeback after capitalising on widespread perceptions that he is a strong man of the people and frustrations with Mbeki's policies and leadership style.

Mbeki, for his part, has been on the defensive, under fire from critics who accuse him of using state institutions to protect allies and purge opponents, allegations he denies.

Despite their image problems and what some have called dirty politics in the ANC race, Mbeki and Zuma publicly insist that the party will remain united and resolve the country's problems.

Some influential ANC members felt an urgent need to offer a last-minute compromise to hold the party together.

Nelson Mandela's former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, said she was concerned over the "near-total breakdown in the historical discipline and focus of the movement".

But in a telling sign of deepening divisions, her damage control effort promoted Zuma. In an open letter to the ANC secretary general she suggested Zuma should be South Africa's next president, and urged the ANC to keep Mbeki as party leader in an apparent face-saving formula.