South Africa’s governing political party, the African National Congress (ANC), plans to woo young voters with its new Mxit mobile app ahead of an election later this year.

Last year, the ANC launched its ‘My ANC Western Cape’ Mxit app to target users of the social network in that province.

And the ANC says that after notching up ‘400,000’ subscribers and ‘8,000’ volunteers in the 17 to 25 age range on its Western Cape Mxit app, the political party is now rolling out the application nationally.

The ‘My ANC’ app can be downloaded for free via the Mxit app store.

“The app, which can be downloaded for free across more than 8 000 mobile devices, provides young South Africans with the opportunity to engage actively with the ANC, gain access to information on service delivery, learn about ANC events, voting and registering for the 2014 elections, and details of their local ward councillors,” the party has said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Mxit chief executive officer Francois Swart has lauded the ANC’s use of the social network.

“Politics is an important conversation in South Africa — especially when it comes to the youth, who might be less engaged in the conversation happening in newspapers and other media platformsm” Swart has said in a statement.

“We believe in our users’ right to be informed about everything that is relevant to them, and one of the great things about Mxit is that it is not just a one-way communication tool, users have the opportunity to engage back and have their own opinions shape the conversation,” said Swart.

It is not just political parties that have latched onto Mxit, which says it has a total of 7.4 million users with 6.5 million of those being from South Africa.

Brands such as sports broadcaster Supersport has 1.95 million users of its Mxit app, while Samsung has 682,000 and Telkom Mobile 488,000, according to the social network.