ANC bosses get tough on members
Secretaries responsible for renewed memberships, fees
EASTERN Cape ANC bosses are threatening to charge any branch or regional secretary who fails to remind members to renew their party membership.
According to ANC rules, party members have a grace period of up to three months to renew their membership after the expiry date. ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane said in the past, members were allowed to pay off arrears even after the three-month grace period.
“We used to allow people to renew their membership any time after the expiry date and allow them to pay off arrears.
“We have since stopped allowing such grace period. Everyone has to renew his or her membership within three months from the expiry date, failing which their membership will lapse,” he said.
The announcement comes on the eve of a busy year for the ruling party, especially in the Eastern Cape, with a a provincial conference, a national general council and a national elective conference next December.
Mabuyane said now that the issue of paying off arrears was out of the picture, the party was forced to hold branch and regional secretaries responsible for reminding members to renew their subscriptions regularly. According to ANC policies, members need to have unbroken service for a certain number of years before ascending to leadership positions.
This makes it crucial for one to have their membership subscription up to date.
These conditions – who qualifies to be in office or take part in an ANC branch meeting – have been at the centre of a membership form scandal in various parts of the country, including Buffalo City.
The media, including the Daily Dispatch, uncovered the scam involving a bank teller at an Mdantsane FNB branch who helped certain members of the party backdate membership forms. This was to enable new members take part in branch general meetings to favour a certain ANC faction.
ANC treasurer general Zweli Mkhize was deployed last year to investigate the scam after FNB fired the implicated bank teller. The outcomes of this investigation have yet to be made public.
Mabuyane said: “Whatever happens in someone’s file at the regional office, regional or branch secretaries must be held accountable.
“Remember we still have ANC members who do not have membership cards. The member solely depends on the branch secretary, who keeps all members’ files, and only the branch secretary has access to the files which have to be kept at the regional office. They are kept at the regional offices for the purposes of keeping track of membership figures.
“When there are new members, the secretary is responsible for managing all these new members’ files. Regional and branch secretaries will be held to account.”