Who+are+ANC+members,+What+do+they+think,+ANC+Today

ANC Today, Volume 6, No. 47 • 1—7 December 2006

 * __Gauteng survey__**

=Who are the ANC's members and what do they think?=

The ANC in Gauteng has recently released the results of an extensive survey on the profile of members in the province and their views on the organisation, its direction and other topical issues.

While the ANC has a number of organisational structures and forums for branch members to articulate their views, the survey provides a more analytical insight into who are the ANC's members and what they think. Because the survey was restricted to Gauteng, it reflects only a particular section of the ANC's national membership.

The study used a number of methods to understand the "values, attitudes, needs and objectives of ANC members and branch office-bearers". These included in-depth interviews with leaders of Alliance partners, focus groups, participant observation at branch meetings, and a structured survey of paid-up ANC members and branch officials.

Explaining the value of the survey, ANC Gauteng Provincial Secretary David Makhura said: "It is in the interest of progressive parties and movements that systematic studies are undertaken to track the positive or negative impact of social transformation processes on the forces that purport to be agents for change. Such studies will help to identify the conscious intervention necessary to mitigate and minimise the negatives while reinforcing and enhancing the positives."

"Research cannot replace grassroots organising and direct interaction with households through door-to-door work. It can only perfect mass work and make such work more responsive to community and membership concerns. Taken together with the ongoing Imvuselelo Campaign aimed at strengthening the grassroots structures and involving the membership in community development work, the issues raised by the membership in the survey constitute a strategic agenda for the Gauteng structures towards the Centenary of the ANC in 2012."

The survey indicates that ANC members in Gauteng are "irrepressibly positive". Nine out of ten ANC members and branch leaders believe the ANC has changed for the better since 1994. Just 1 in 20 believe that it has changed for the worse. According to the report: "There is a visibly positive energy in the Gauteng membership that gives the leadership a solid foundation on which to base future interventions."

The ANC's members in Gauteng span a number of generations of the movement. A quarter of branch members and leaders joined the ANC before 1969. Very few joined in the first half of the 1970s, rising to 17% between 1977 and 1989. Just over a quarter of current members joined between the unbanning of the ANC in 1990 and the first democratic elections in 1994. A further 17% have joined since.

Over a third of these members also belong to the ANC Women's League, and just over a fifth belong to the Youth League. Many are also members of Alliance formations, with 29% being members of the South African National Civics Organisation (SANCO), 16% also being members of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and 14% being members of affiliates of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).

The economic position of ANC members in Gauteng differ widely, with poverty a daily reality for many. A quarter of members do not have access to running water. Using the 'expanded' definition, 42% of members are unemployed. A quarter of members have a monthly household disposable income of between R1,000 and R3,000. Around 23% have less, and 28% have more. A further 24% did not answer the question.

A substantial part of the survey deals with the state of branches and the strategies used to strengthen them. The impact of regional and provincial deployees was widely appreciated. A large proportion of members, 58%, thought the ANC leadership should communicate with members by visiting branches. Others, 36%, thought branch meetings were the best way for the ANC to communicate with members, while 4% preferred briefing documents, and only 1% e-mails.

Importantly, 87% of members said the 50/50 gender quota was a good thing, while 5% thought it was bad.

In identifying the main issues facing their communities, almost half mentioned unemployment, followed by crime, HIV and Aids, poverty and poor services. Members expressed a high level of confidence in the national parliament, followed by the provincial administration and councillors. The police, by contrast, were rated particularly low on the confidence scale.

"The implication - explicit in the qualitative report - is that the ANC is and will remain the key force for progressive change, and needs to deepen its pro-poor stance and speed up delivery... But there is a second dimension to this, an internal one, where respondents are aware that the ANC's political project can be de-railed by on-going internal disputes, lack of consultation, and so on. And the point that respondents are making is that the ANC must get its own house in order if it is to meet the massive challenges that face it now, as well as new challenges it will be facing by 2012.

"The survey has shown conclusively that the ANC in Gauteng has a powerful human resource base - a membership that is optimistic, committed, pro-poor, active, and deeply embedded in civil society... In short, a membership base that any political party anywhere would envy. What matters is that the ANC provides appropriate leadership to focus members' energies on the tasks at hand and join with the membership in fighting for a better life for all, rather than allow on-going politicking to dissipate energy and commitment."


 * From: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2006/at47.htm#art2**

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