ANC Youth League losing 100,000's Voters

The ANC Youth League hopes to have a more efficient registration process in place by December and believes this will correct recent declining membership numbers, spokesperson Floyd Shivambu said on Friday.

He confirmed a Mail&Guardian report that the league's numbers had dropped in the past four years from 500 000 to 317 000, which the publication commented raised questions about its "self-bestowed authority to give instructions to the National Prosecuting Authority and tell South Africa's sitting president to resign".

In response to an Independent Electoral Commission concern that the number of youth voters had declined sharply, he said the ANCYL planned a campaign to encourage young people to register and to vote.

He said people who turn 18 didn't know where voting stations were, or how to place their names on the voters' roll. They planned a campaign to introduce first time youth voters to electoral processes.

The Mail&Guardian reported that the Young Communist League's last audited figures in March stood at 48 000. - Sapa