The African National Congress (ANC) says it will embark on a number of additional initiatives to raise funds amid staff’s discontentment about non-payment of their full salaries.
This is in addition to the crowdfunding aimed at resolving the party’s salary issues.
ANC employees recently marched to the party’s offices in Johannesburg – demanding their salaries be paid. Some of them haven’t been paid for two months.
Briefing the media on the strike on Thursday morning, ANC national Spokesperson Pule Mabe attributed the cash-flow problems to a lack of funding and the state of the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mabe, says the Political Party Funding Act dealt the party a major blow.
“For the past two months, provinces had begun engaging the TG for their provincial and regional staff so that at Luthuli House we strictly concern ourselves dealing with salaries including running of programmes. We are doing things that we didn’t do,” says Mabe.
Video: Pule Mabe speak to SABC news about the ANC’s IEC court challenge, the party’s financial woes and staff salaries
Video: Pule Mabe speaks on the ANC staff strike over late payment of salaries:
In June, workers marched to the party’s headquarters and handed over a memorandum to Acting Secretary-General, Jessie Duarte who promised that workers’ salaries would be paid on time.
ANC staff representative committee Chairperson, Mvusi Mdala says non-payment of the salaries has badly affected the livelihood of the workers
“We have been in this situation for some time, for more than four years, because the employer has not been paying our provident fund, has not been paying our UIF (Unemployment Insurance Fund) whereas they’ve been deducting from us since 2018. Therefore, we are not convinced that the pandemic and the party funding is as a result of the financial crisis that is facing the ANC currently,” says Mdala.
ANC staff members across the country picket over salaries:
The ANC has been experiencing financial problems with reports that it owed the South African Revenue Service (SARS) R80 million in Pay As You Earn deductions.
In the video below, ANC Treasurer-General Paul Mashatile explains how the party was planning to raise some funds:
