Still a bargain to join ANC

ANC supporters

It will still cost only R12 to join the ANC for a year, the party’s new treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize has said.

Mkhize this afternoon said the party at its congress in Mangaung debated the matter and decided to keep the membership fees the same.

“We want to get our members to give donations too,” he said.

Raising the membership fees is one way for the party to raise more money, after outgoing party treasurer Mathews Phosa complained in his report to the conference that the party was spending more than it was raising.

The report showed that the party’s income over the past five years was almost R1.5 billion.

Mkhize also said the party continued to support the public funding of political parties. “We believe it is a way of supporting our democracy,” he said.

The party wants to see laws that will provide for political parties to get more money from government so that it would not need to raise money from private donors.

In response to questions about the topic, Mkhize said the ANC’s investment arm, Chancellor House, was not discussed by the finance committee but he believed it should be treated “like any other business”.

He also said ANC members and leaders would get financial training to help them with budgeting.

Asked whether the party would reconsider holding large and expensive rallies – something Phosa said in his report cost the party a lot of money – Mkhize said the ANC had to do “political mobilisation” and this involved going to the people to speak to them.