By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@GalloImages.
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.
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.
He 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 talk 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.
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.
ANC staff committee representative Mantla Qwane says the party has also not been paying UIF contributions.
“The pickets are going to be taking place across the country in all our ANC provincial offices, including Albert Luthuli House. We are going to continue with work as committed members of the African National Congress.
“This is about a number of issues including the delay in salaries payments which has been happening since 2018, but it started worsening now after the advent of the coronavirus. The pandemic has affected the ANC like any other institution.
It seeks to highlight the plight of workers in relation to the salary, which has been the lowest compared to all workers you can think of from all across the country. The third issue relates to the provident fund that has been in areas since 2018. The ANC has not been playing its part and this has affected the status of our provident fund for over three years now.”
Qwane added that the party’s leaders have not been able to resolve the issue.