The civil rights organisation AfriForum’s membership figure has just passed the 200 000 mark. The organisation’s membership stood at 8 000 members in January 2010 and therefore grew exponentially over the past eight years.
According to Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, the strong growth in members means that AfriForum can now enter a new phase during which the organisation’s campaigns and operations can expand further.
“The support of 200 000 members now makes it possible to expand among others Adv. Gerrie Nel’s team in AfriForum’s private prosecuting unit to enable them to take up even more cases. The organisation is now also able to enlarge its network of about 100 AfriForum neighbourhood watches and other self-do actions in local communities, while it can also undertake national and international campaigns on a much larger scale,” he says.
Kriel pointed to the fact that AfriForum’s campaigns are made possible by its members and that each of these 200 000 members can therefore be proud of their respective roles in the successes that AfriForum has thus far obtained, as well as in the future. “AfriForum’s power is grounded in its members and AfriForum therefore thanks each of its member for their continued support,” Kriel says.
According to Kriel, the fact that Government is riddled with maladministration and corruption means that the establishing of strong civil institutions has become more essential to ensure that Government be held accountable.
“200 000 members give AfriForum the muscle power to fulfil this responsibility with greater efficiency, while the still growing membership figure indicates that this muscle power will be even greater in future,” says Kriel.