ANC dismisses tax evasion allegations as ‘abhorrent and irresponsible’

The African National Congress (ANC) has dismissed reports that it has been given an ultimatum to either settle its unpaid R100 million tax bill or have its assets attached.

This after the Daily Maverick reported on Monday that the Gauteng High Court had issued a civil judgment instructing the sheriff to attach assets to the value of R102.546,580.76 in 10 days.

The report alleged the ANC had not paid the employee tax, UIF or the skills development levy, though it deducted these from its 346 staff members.

But the ruling party says there is no truth to the report.

“The African National Congress (ANC) has noted an article that appeared in one of the online newspaper accusing the organisation of being a ‘tax evader’ and further that the South African Revenue Services (SARS) has issued a 10 day ultimatum for the payment of over 100 million in tax debt,” said spokesperson Pule Mabe in a statement on Monday.

“The ANC is neither aware nor informed of such an ultimatum by SARS and therefore dismisses such inaccurate, malicious, dubious and divisive media reports with the contempt they deserve. Matters of taxation of the ANC are private and handled by the Treasurer General’s Office (TGO) who engages with
SARS from time to time on such affairs.”

According to Mabe, the ANC TGO has entered into legally permissible payment arrangements with SARS to pay off its debts.

“The ANC will continue to pay all taxes and debts owed to SARS, and certainly finds the allegation of tax evasion rendered against the movement, abhorrent and irresponsible.

The ruling party’s financial struggles were brought to the spotlight last year after staffers held pickets across provinces demanding that owed salaries be paid.

Paul Mashatile has previously blamed the Political Party Funding Act for the ANC’s financial struggles.

“The challenge we have, if I may repeat it again, is that 70 percent of our income comes from the private sector and the law requiring disclosure saw many people pull back their funding. So we struggle to raise funds,” he said in December.