Existential crisis — ANC membership drops by more than one third in five years

The ANC’s membership has dropped by more than 33% since its previous elective conference in December 2017, with the party shedding more than 330 000 members around the country over the past five years.

The governing party now has half of the number of members it had in 2012 — when its membership peaked at the 53rd national conference in Mangaung at 1.2 million — despite modernising its membership system and a number of initiatives aimed at reaching the 1-million membership mark the party has been pursuing since 1990.

According to the party’s organisational report, delivered at its 55th national conference in Johannesburg on Saturday morning by deputy president David Mabuza, membership dropped from 989 736 in 2017 to 661 489 this December.