Stellenbosch: Thabo Mbeki has struck a conciliatory tone with alliance partners Cosatu and the SA Communist Party, but has attacked careerists who have "brought unfamiliar and unacceptable practices" into the ruling party.

He also lambasted opposition leader Tony Leon's Democratic Party/Democratic Alliance, which he said had positioned itself as "the most determined opponent" of the ANC's efforts to transform the country.

It had "done everything it could to oppose our transformation efforts", Mbeki said.

"This formation is the most unashamed proponent of neo-liberalism in our country, which favours the entrenchment of the racial and gender imbalances we inherited from the past."

Mbeki described the official opposition as "a historical relic" that was prolonging its life "by encouraging fear of democracy among the national minorities", but said it would not succeed.

In a clear reference to Cosatu and the SACP's call for a basic income grant, Mbeki said the "right-wing" DP's attempts to ally itself with supposedly leftist campaigns would not save it from defeat.

Delivering his political report, Mbeki shied away from referring to an expected purge of the "ultra-left". He called for unity in the ANC-Cosatu-SACP alliance, while acknowledging there were inherent "serious strains".

After months of disagreement between the ANC on one hand and Cosatu and the SACP on the other, all three alliance members called for unity in their separate statements.

Mbeki referred delegates to statements by former president Nelson Mandela that while it was the ANC's responsibility to lead the alliance, the defeat of apartheid and the assumption of power had thrown up a number of difficulties with which the partners had to grapple.

Mbeki said the party would have to pay close attention to defeating the careerists who had inserted themselves into the liberation movement, bringing in unacceptable practices.

"These include the use of money to buy votes, the corruption of our organisational processes to capture positions of power, the use of the mass media to camouflage corrupt practice, and the consistent resort to lies and gross falsification to advance immoral purposes."

With acknowledgements to Jeremy Michaels, Charles Phahlane and Cape Times.