The African National Congress (ANC) has once again failed to pay its employees’ salaries on time at the end of April.
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has obtained a garnishee order for the ANC’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) allocation funds of R17m, in part-payment of the party’s tax liability.
The IEC allocates R168m a year to all political parties in parliament, which is distributed quarterly. R17m was the ANC’s share for the first quarter.
Luthuli House general manager, Febe Potgieter, wrote to staff:
“Due to continued financial difficulties, this situation of uncertainty with regard to the exact date of payment of salaries is likely to continue for the coming three to six months.”
“We appeal to the financial institutions and other creditors of our staff to take note that late payments by no means are the fault of the individual staff, and therefore not to penalise them for this unfortunate situation.”
According to the Sunday Times, the ANC owes SARS millions, from the time when Jacob Zuma was its president and Zweli Mkhize its treasurer-general.
ANC sources said that the leadership elected at the party’s conference in 2017 found the party’s finances in a dire state.
Mashatile discovered the ANC owed SARS R80m and R140m in provident-fund debt.
“To date he [Mashatile] has paid over R100m servicing that debt and its interest. But because of the interest [accumulated], the debt remains high to date.”
The party has continually negotiated with SARS to give it a portion of its IEC funding.
“On most times we rely on donations to pay salaries because the party funding doesn’t come every month,” the insider said.
If you don’t want SARS to come after you, you must never fail to pay over the PAYE that you’ve deducted from employees.