ANC blog goes live

11 March 2009

On the back of successful Twitter and Facebook initiatives, the African National Congress (ANC) is deepening its online conversation with the launch of blogs on www.myanc.org.

ANC leaders Jessie Duarte, Janet Love and Cyril Ramaphosa are the first bloggers to extend the online conversation to blogging with more senior ANC voices joining the online debate in the coming weeks.

"Our blog is a natural extension of the active listening, responding and engagement that the ANC has consistently done throughout its 97 years of existence," ANC spokesperson Jessie Duarte said.

"We see it as a 'virtual imbizo'. Instead of talking face to face we are talking in a virtual environment. There is such a danger in seeing the online campaign as separate or somehow different. It's not. It's an extension of our engagement with citizens. More talking. More listening. And most importantly, more conversation."

The blog strategy is to respond to online conversations that have critical mass. "The ANC isn't using the blogs to relentlessly drive a specific agenda, but to get involved with conversations that are already happening online. This way, we can share ANC views on topics or debates that are already deemed interesting by the online audience," Duarte said.

"With just six weeks to go it's going to get interesting. The ANC is looking forward to some constructive and no doubt heated debate," Duarte said.

The blogs can be found on the ANC's interactive elections site: www.myanc.org.

Issued by:
African National Congress

More information:
Ishmael Mnisi 082 333 5550