No new staff or flashy events for freshly frugal ANC

If ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile has his way, the ANC will not employ more staff, and it will cut back on bling events and ditch some of its expensive programmes.

This comes as Africa’s oldest liberation movement, which celebrated its 108th anniversary in Kimberley, Northern Cape, yesterday, is reported to be going through a financial slump that saw it fail to pay its staff last month’s salaries on time.

The party has had to be taken to court in the past for nonpayment of services rendered for its lavish celebrations.

Mashatile said the party had made a decision to rework its budget and how it operates, and also investigate whether its staff numbers were correct for a modern ANC. He told City Press this week that the party would be bringing in a financial consulting company to conduct a thorough assessment of where cuts should be made.

“We are going to look again at the way that we do our events because some of the costs can be avoided. We have appointed a company to do the reorganisation of the ANC. We need look at our offices, see what key portfolios need to be filled and so on. From there, we will know what the right size is for the modern ANC that we are building,” he said.

Once the reorganisation has been done, the party will start cutting down on some of its programmes, including rallies, which are known to be rather over the top.

He did, however, guarantee that there would be no retrenchments.

“We are going to avoid growth of personnel, so we want to rightsize the organisation. We do not want to retrench people, but we are going to ensure that there is not continuous employment, which will blow up our salary bill,” Mashatile said.

Recently, six former Cabinet ministers who did not make it back to their positions in government or Parliament were employed at Luthuli House, the ANC’s headquarters in Johannesburg.

Mashatile said the additional staff numbers were not crippling the ANC in any way.

“It’s not true that the ANC has a bloated salary bill as a result of former ministers who have now joined the staff at Luthuli House. Remember that they didn’t join the party’s headquarters because they were former ministers – the ANC decided that the head of organisation should be employed full time. Because of the nature of our work, the head of policy should also be employed full time, as well as people who deal with the media,” he said.

He added that the members had been brought into Luthuli House for a specific purpose: “I am sure there are not more than six people, and I don’t think six people can blow out the salary bill. So we are fine. We are looking at all our work. Those comrades are needed at head office. They are there to fill specific roles.”

Mashatile downplayed reports suggesting that the ANC was in debt and that it had failed to pay service providers who put together last year’s January 8 event.

“There is no organisation that does not have debt, but if we owe people, we make arrangements with them. That is why I am saying that, if there is somebody who says we owe them, come to me and I will have information about who is owed for what and what the plans are to manage those debts,” he said.

READ: The ANC is not a ‘rich party’ but will pay its staff – Mashatile

As the week-long birthday celebrations ended yesterday with a big rally where President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered the party’ traditional January 8 statement, Mashatile said that there would be no issues with services not being paid for.

“Different service providers have different arrangements. Some will say: ‘Give me 50% and when we have done our work, you will give us the balance.’ Others will say they want their money upfront, but everything is in order,” he added.

Since its formation, the ANC has relied on donations and contributions from public representatives, he said, and it “does not have a lot of money because it is a nongovernmental organisation”.

“Money comes from members and our public representatives as we speak. They contribute about 3% of their salaries. People pay membership fees and private corporates donate to us. We need to manage our affairs, we do not have ways of generating income as an nongovernmental organisation. We get some money from government.”

At a media briefing earlier in the week, Mashatile would not be drawn on the specific amount spent on the Kimberley celebrations, saying that it was “a private matter”, and disclosing such information was not part of the organisation’s culture.

Queenin Masaubi Political journalist | City Press

+27 11 713 9001 Queenin.Masuabi@citypress.co.za Media Park, 69 Kingsway Road, Auckland Park

Rise above the clutter | Choose your news | City Press in your inbox

City Press is an agenda-setting South African news brand that publishes across platforms. Its flagship print edition is distributed on a Sunday.