ANC staff to picket over late salaries amid cash flow problems

The ANC’s staff members are expected to hold a lunchtime picket on Tuesday outside the governing party’s Luthuli House headquarters in Johannesburg over delays in and the non-payment of salaries.

The ANC has been struggling to pay staff salaries on time for months due to cash flow problems it has blamed on the new Political Party Funding Act.

ANC staff, including those in the party’s provincial and regional offices, are expected to hand over a memorandum of demands to the party’s elected officials during their picket.

ALSO READ: ‘We’re not just sitting back and doing nothing’: Mashatile on ANC’s cash flow problems

On Monday, ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile said the party understood the hardships faced by its workers and was working to fix this.

Mashatile denied the ANC was bankrupt. He said the Political Party Funding Act, which came into effect on 1 April, was having an impact on the party’s coffers.

Mashatile said this did not mean the party was bankrupt as funding from its donors had been “trickling in as opposed to previous years”.

“Since the advent of the new law, there has been a great reluctance from many businesses to donate because of disclosure. So, as a result, we have struggled to get money in time as opposed to previous years,” Mashatile told Radio 702.

The Political Party Funding Act requires political parties represented in the Parliament and provincial legislatures to submit audited financial statements for funding received from the Represented Political Party Fund and the Multi-Party Democracy Fund.

Parties also have an obligation to disclose donations from R100,000 and upwards.

According to reports, the ANC has been unable to pay staff benefits to provident and pension funds despite making deductions from their salaries. The party also owes the South African Revenue Service millions in PAYE deductions. It is also been reported that some of the staff members have not received their May salaries.

The ANC admitted last week its cash flow challenges had reached a critical point.