ANC proposes additional zero-rated items, sends four NEC members to Luthuli House
Legoete, Mchunu, Mabe and Kodwa will join Magashule, Duarte and Mashatile on a full-time basis at Luthuli House.
A table and chairs where ANC leaders were supposed to sit and address the media. Picture: Warren Mabona
The ANC has reacted to the concerns raised after Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba’s budget speech, in which he announced an increase in value-added tax (VAT) to support government’s social spending.
During the press briefing after an NEC meeting on Sunday, the party announced that President Cyril Ramaphosa noted “the constrained fiscal space South Africa finds itself in”.
To alleviate the financial burden on the poor, the party is proposing additions to the list of zero-rated and tax-exempted items.
Ramaphosa “strongly emphasised” the need for ANC leaders and members to honour the deployments entrusted to them, and the need for “consequence management where comrades fail to do so”.
Following the constitutional amendments and resolutions of the 54th national conference held in Nasrec in December 2017, four additional NEC members have been redeployed to Luthuli House on a full-time basis.
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The ANC constitution has previously made provisions for secretary-general, deputy secretary-general and treasurer-general to be based at the party’s headquarters on a full-time basis. Ace Magashule, Jessie Duarte and Paul Mashatile will be joined by Senzo Mchunu, Dagota Legoete, Pule Mabe and Zizi Kodwa.
Mabe’s appointment as party spokesperson was announced earlier, while Mchunu, Ramaphosa’s lead campaigner in KwaZulu-Natal leading up to the conference, will convene the organising and campaigns, together with Legoete. Kodwa, the party’s former spokesperson, will now be in charge of monitoring and evaluation in the office of the party president.
Members elected as chairpersons of subcommittees include David Mabuza as chairperson and Duarte as coordinator of the coveted deployment committee, Gauteng party spokesperson Nkenke Kekana will head the information and publicity committee, Enoch Godongwana has been retained as chairperson of economic transformation, Edna Molewa chairs the national disciplinary committee, while Baleka Mbete chairs the political committee.
The conveners of deployees to provinces are Hlengiwe Mkhize for the Eastern Cape, Siyabonga Cwele for the Free State, Joe Maswanganyi for Gauteng, Nocawe Mafu for KZN, Thoko Didiza in Limpopo, Gwen Ramokgopa for Mpumalanga, Collen Maine for the Northern Cape and Obed Bapela for North West.
