ANC goes electronic to stop people from taking names from graveyards for attendance registers

The ANC will be migrating from its old membership system to an electronic membership management system “to discourage gatekeeping”.

So said ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule on Wednesday‚ speaking at a media briefing at the St George's Hotel in Irene.

Magashule said the “state-of-the-art membership system” would “stop people who go to the graveyard to take names and include them in the attendance register” of branch general meetings (BGMs) as well as put a stop to “door-to-door lobbying”.

The first phase of the new system‚ by FNB and Specs Net‚ will be implemented as of next week when BGMs for list conferences resume.

“One of the features of this phase is an application for screening and verifying attendance at these BGMs‚ in terms of requirements for quorums‚ and so that all eligible members are able to attend and participate. This is a key measure to prevent gatekeeping‚ a matter which has plagued the ANC over the last few years‚” he said.

ANC branch secretaries will provide dates for their BGMs‚ with adequate notice of at least seven days before the meeting sits.

"The ANC will also have a national call centre for the list process‚ to assist branches and ANC and ANC members‚ so that the list process is democratic‚ rigorous‚ fair and peaceful‚” said Magashule.

Magashule said among the things the new membership management system would achieve would be:

• Easing new member registration‚ renewals and terminations;
• Membership fee management‚ reconciliation and fee distribution;
• Speed up membership card printing and distribution;
• Generate membership status reports for each branch and region; and
• Control attendance registers for BGMs and other ANC meetings and events.

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