Addressing the Cape Town Press Club in Newlands, Zille said she wanted to lead a movement to recapture "the promise of 1994", and make democracy a reality.

"I will continue to devote my life to the attainment of that goal. I have staked my political leadership on it. And I am prepared to work with all like-minded political leaders to achieve it."

She said the country needed a convergence in the political centre.

None of the existing political parties, as currently constituted, could credibly offer this on its own.

Zille warned of the "inevitable" and "irreversible" implosion of the African National Congress, and the resulting disaster it would wreak on the country.

"When you're on a burning platform, you're in a race against time... In politics, the instinctive reaction to a burning platform is denial."

The ANC was using "political plastic watering cans" to douse the flames.

The next two years, leading up to the next general election, would see significant change, Zille said.

Every person had to decide where they stood: with the populists who would drive the country into the "abyss"; or with the constitutionalists, who would fight for four core principles.

These were defending the Constitution, nurturing genuine non-racialism, growing a market-driven economy, and building a state that put competence above party loyalty.