ANC staff members say they are disgusted at the lack of commitment by the leadership of the party in resolving problems related to their salaries and employment benefits.
The party’s employees were on strike last year and are currently staging a stay away due to unpaid salaries, and the failure of their employer to contribute to medical aid and a provident fund.
Spokesperson for the staff, Mvusi Mdala, says that the ANC leadership has employed divide and rule tactics in dealing with their problems.
“The leadership has endorsed a decision to place some staff members under the care of provinces in terms of financial resources. That means ANC staff members in those provinces are receiving salaries and this potentially weakens efforts to put pressure on management to attend to our demands. Even worse, some staff members are allegedly receiving stacks of hard cash in brown envelopes in exchange for their labour and loyalty as the rest of us continue to drown in a sea of poverty.”
The staff says their action has stalled preparations for the party’s National Conference in December this year.
They say they hope the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting currently under way will give their matter priority.
ANC staff brief the media on the non-payment of their salaries:
Unpaid salaries
Last year, ANC staff said they have only been paid salaries for October in December.
This is after the ruling party said it paid outstanding salaries for October and November and was processing December salaries, hoping to have paid all of them out before Christmas.
Salaries were also not paid in July and August, as indicated in the tweet below:
The @MYANC has once again failed to pay salaries of its staff members. July salaries were not paid and now August. #sabcnews pic.twitter.com/0ZnvXzgHZd
— #TheLordOfTheMedia (@samkelemaseko) August 25, 2021
Pickets
In June last year, 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.
Employees at @MYANC Headquarters Luthuli House are picketing over the party’s failure to pay salaries. #sabcnews #ANC pic.twitter.com/bsOhYzxxHd
— #TheLordOfTheMedia (@samkelemaseko) June 15, 2021
Mdala says non-payment of the salaries has badly affected the livelihood of the workers.
The party has been experiencing financial problems with reports that it owed the South African Revenue Service (SARS) R80-million in Pay As You Earn deductions.
-Additional reporting by SABC News
