The African National Congress’s (ANC) Treasurer-General Paul Mashatile has admitted that the governing party is facing financial constraints which are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Tuesday, ANC staff members will embark on a nationwide picket at lunchtime, over the party’s failure to pay salaries on time.
The ANC has been experiencing financial problems with reports that it owes the South African Revenue Service (SARS) R80 million in Pay As You Earn (PAYE) deductions.
The party is also in arrears by at least 28 months or around R140 million on its provident fund, which is deducted from workers’ salaries.
Dozens of protesting workers are expected to hand over their memorandum of demands at the party’s headquarters, Luthuli House, in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Mashatile says the party has lost most of its funders.
“We are struggling with cash flow, the ANC has never really had an abundance of cash, we’ve always got money from donors and since the pandemic funding has been coming very slow because companies are not doing so well. Some of them have closed down. It’s a difficult environment but we do try our best to raise funds but sometimes we get funding a bit late and we end up paying salaries late.” says Mashatile.
He adds: “In the current economic environment it has not been easy to get any evidence most of our investments are also affected. But there is another problem now: the new act which requires disclosure beyond 100k you donate to a political party you must disclose so some people are uncomfortable with that so they are slowly pulling back and we do struggle in that regard.”
Source: SABC News
