THE AFRICAN National Congress party has achieved its long-held goal of exceeding one million members, South African president Jacob Zuma said at the organisation’s centenary celebrations in Bloemfontein yesterday.
During a televised speech in front of tens of thousands of supporters in the Free State provincial capital, where the ANC was founded in 1912, Mr Zuma said a resolution was passed at the 1942 ANC conference that the ANC should have a million members by the time of its centenary.
“It is my pleasure to announce that we have achieved this goal . . . The total number of ANC members is 1,027,389 members in good standing,” he told the crowd at the Free State Stadium.
Mr Zuma paid special tribute to white activists who had committed themselves to democratic change in the country.
“The ANC has always and continues to cherish [their] contribution . . . This unity across divides has strengthened the ANC,” he said.
In the run-up to the centenary celebrations, critics of the ANC lambasted the leadership for being greedy, corrupt, self-serving and beset by infighting and power struggles that would only intensify as the party’s elective conference in December approached.
However, Mr Zuma hit back saying the party continued to be relevant 100 years on because it was a selfless disciplined force of the left biased towards the poor.
Nevertheless in what appeared to be an acknowledgement of infighting, Mr Zuma said the party would make a special effort this year to stamp out factionalism and promote political discipline amongst its membership.