The ANC's growth after the defiance campaignThe publicity the ANC received as a result of the defiance campaign and, undoubtedly, the tireless efforts of its leaders at branch and national level, helped the organisation to gain more members.
"Figures cited by Joe Matthews suggest that membership of the ANC in Port Elizabeth swelled enormously during the Defiance Campaign. He reckons that the membership of the New Brighton branch alone increased from 2 700 to 13 000 within a space of less than a month ... By early September, ANC members in Korsten and Dassieskraal stood at 5 000 and 3 000, respectively."
- Baines, GF, "New Brighton, Port Elizabeth c.1903-1953: A history of an urban African community", University of Cape Town, Department of History, PhD thesis, February 1994, p. 217)
"Over the next five months, 8 500 people took part in the campaign. Doctors, factory workers, lawyers, teachers, students, ministers, defied and went to jail ... The campaign received an enormous amount of publicity and the membership of the ANC shot up from some 20 000 to 100 000, with the most spectacular increase occurring in the eastern Cape, which contributed half of all new members."
- Mandela, N, Long Walk To Freedom, South Africa, A Macdonald Purnell Book, 1994, p. 123 |
