Escalating rift inside South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC), triggered by prosecution of the sacked vice president Jacob Zuma, has worried former president and veteran ANC leader Nelson Mandela, the South African media reported on Sunday.

The well-respected statesman is said to be ready to help deal with the crisis of the party, which has been in power for eleven years after leading a long struggle against former apartheid rule.

National newspaper Sunday Times quoted Mandela's spokeswoman Zelda la Grange as saying that he is worried that the Zuma debacle is dividing the ANC.

"Yes, Madia (Mandela's clan name popular in South Africa) is concerned," she said, adding that Mandela would be available to the leadership structure to play a role for a unified organization "if he is asked to do so."

Mandela was getting regular briefings from ANC secretary- general Kgalema Motlanthe after he returned late on Friday from a trip to Nairobi, Kenya, with his wife Graca Machel.

ANC officials, including Smuts Ngonyama, head of President Thabo Mbeki's party office, were still in the dark about talks between Mbeki and Zuma to chart a way forward, the report said.

ANC leaders wanted a report-back as soon as possible, and were hoping for a briefing from the two leaders at Monday's scheduled meeting of the ANC's national working committee, it said.

Zuma, once considered the heir apparent to Mbeki when he completes his term in 2009, was fired in June following the corruption conviction of his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik.

Zuma's sacking was widely seen as proof of Mbeki's determination to set an example for the rest of Africa by fighting official corruption, but has created tensions within the ANC, which rules in alliance with the South African Communist Party and the powerful labor federation COSATU.

Zuma has repeatedly protested his innocence and suggested he was the victim of a vendetta by his political foes. He still retains his job as ANC's deputy president and enjoys the backing of the COSATU and the powerful youth wing of the ANC.

Tensions inside ANC were escalated last week as Zuma, with two corruption charges, made an appearance in a Durban court on Tuesday. Thousands of his supporters gathered outside the court to protest. Some chanted anti-Mbeki slogans and burned T-shirts bearing Mbeki's picture.

Source: Xinhua