South Africa`s former president Thabo Mbeki said in a letter published Friday that he would not campaign for the ruling ANC in next year`s polls, after the party forced him from office last month.

Mbeki sent the letter to African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma earlier this month but the Star newspaper published a leaked copy on Friday, on the eve of a convention aimed at organising a breakaway party.

The former president said announcements by the ANC that he would campaign for them `took me by surprise.`

`I appeal that nobody should abuse or cite my name falsely to promote their partisan cause, including how the 2009 ANC election campaign would be conducted,` Mbeki wrote.

He said he could not understand how the party, which asked him to step down as president `could consider me such a dependable cadre as to be relied upon to promote the political fortunes of the very same movement.`

In the leaked letter, Mbeki wrote that neither the ANC leadership nor the breakaway movement had sought his support for their political campaigns.

Mbeki said he was still deciding what to do after losing the presidency.

`Whatever I do in no way involves me in the internal politics of the ANC or the functioning of the government of South Africa,` he said.

`I absolutely will not rule from the grave,` he added.

Zuma seized control of the ANC from Mbeki during the party`s conference last December, and his allies in the leadership last month forced Mbeki to resign as president just months before the end of his second term.

The in-fighting exposed deep splits within the party that led the struggle against apartheid, giving birth to a breakaway movement headed by former defence minister Mosiuoa `Terror` Lekota, an Mbeki loyalist.

Lekota, a former ANC chairman, officially resigned from the party Friday. The ANC had suspended him three weeks ago after he suggested a new party be formed.

He and his allies say the convention this weekend will lay the groundwork for a new political party, which he says could challenge the ANC in elections next year, when Zuma is widely expected to become president.

The main opposition Democratic Alliance said it would attend the convention, saying in a statement that the dissidents recognised `the grave risk to the future of democracy posed by the ANC’s abuse of the Constitution.`

The DA said it supported many of the agenda items such as electoral reform and combatting corruption.

In a full page advert in The Star newspaper, convention organisers decried the `rapid degeneration of the political morality and value systems` of the ANC, which had been `the very beacon of hope` of South Africans.

The advert also calls for donations for the new party, which faces a financial battle to put together an election campaign for polls just months away.

The dissident`s cause has gained momentum since Mbeki`s forced resignation, with thousands of ANC members burning their party membership cards at rallies around the country.

Mbeki`s letter also slammed the culture of `personality cults` which he said had evolved in the ANC, referring to declarations by youth league and union leaders that they would `kill` for Zuma.

Concerns have been raised about possible violence as hate rhetoric rises around the split, with Zuma supporters chanting `kill Shilowa, kill Lekota` at recent rallies.