ANC’s biggest growth in KZN

2010-09-21 15:42

Durban – The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal is "over the moon" that it registered the biggest membership growth in the country between 2007 and 2010, provincial secretary Sihle Zikalala said on Tuesday.

"We are highly impressed by the organisational growth in the province which is reflected by the high membership," Zikalala told Sapa.

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe told delegates attending the party's five-day national general council in Durban that 127 875 people had joined the ruling party since December 2007.

KwaZulu-Natal registered the biggest gains with 89 876 new members, 70% of the total.

ANC membership in North West grew by 10 558, Gauteng by 10 396 and the Western Cape by 3 930 over the past three years.

There was a decline in ANC membership in Mpumalanga, where the party lost 19 683 followers, in the Free State it lost 8 508 and 140 in the Northern Cape.

Grown all over the province

Zikalala said the number of ANC branches in KwaZulu-Natal had grown "all over the province". The party had built branches in areas perceived to be traditional IFP strongholds, such as Ulundi and Nongoma.

The IFP however refuted claims the ANC had dismantled its strongholds.

IFP national organiser Albert Mncwango early this year described it as a myth, saying that by-elections had proved the ANC had failed to penetrate IFP strongholds.

ANC president Jacob Zuma recently took the ANC’s Imvuselelo (regrowth) campaign to Ulundi to garner support for the ruling party ahead of next year's local government polls.

The campaign was an old ANC programme re-launched in May 2010 in Mpumalanga, as part of efforts to make sure the ruling party reached a membership of one million.

- SAPA