ANC staff picket outside Constitution House in Adderley Street against unfair labour practice by the ANC leadership. Photo: Gallo Images/Brenton Geach
African National Congress (ANC) treasurer-general Paul Mashatile said cabinet ministers will be coming to the embattled party’s aid by donating R10,000 each.
The pledge was allegedly made at a recent national executive committee meeting at Luthuli House. Deputies would contribute half of what their ministers contribute.
As reported by The Sunday Times, the contributions are “in addition to the monthly levies ministers and deputies pay the party”.
If all 27 ministers and 36 deputies contribute their respective R10,000 or R5,000, the party would make R450,000; still not enough to save the ANC.
The ANC has been experiencing cash flow problems for some time, with staff members complaining for months that they have not been receiving salaries on time.
Apart from the ANC’s recent salary mishap – a bill of around R18 million per month – the party’s debt adds to more than R200 million.
This includes an R17 million payment owed to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) for unpaid taxes – from an R80 million tax bill when Mashatile became treasurer-general in 2017.
The ANC also owes millions of rands in PAYE (Pay As You Earn) tax. This was reportedly deducted from employees but never paid to Sars.
The ruling party hasn’t been able to pay its staff since July 2021 and announced back in September it is still not in a position to settle the outstanding monies owed.
ALSO READ: ANC gets creative in ‘resolving’ delayed salary payments
The party is also scrambling to raise money for the upcoming municipial elections, with ANC general manager Febe Potgieter-Gqubule saying:
“We are in a challenging position where we have to also raise resources for local government elections, and budgets for elections have been reduced to an absolute minimum”.
Despite that, ANC’s head of elections Fikile Mbalula said on 22 September the party was aiming to spend approximately R50 million to campaign for this year’s municipal elections.
Speaking on 702, Mbalula said the spending limit was capped at R50 million:
“In terms of our budget, it’s a moving target. We are not looking at spending more than R50 million in this campaign. It’s a very short [period of campaigning] and we can live without other things”.
‘Other things’ apparently include staff salaries.
READ MORE: Can’t-pay-salaries ANC to spend R50 million on elections campaign
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