ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile has conceded that the party’s previous generous donors are shunning it since the enactment of the Political Party Funding Act.
Mashatile, who is also the ANC’s former treasurer-general, indicated that provincial structures sending delegates to the party’s national general council (NGC), due to start on December 8, will have to do so at their own cost.
Mashatile revealed these details during engagements with the Parliamentary Press Gallery Association in Cape Town on Thursday.
This unfolds against the backdrop of the ANC’s failure to pay its employees’ salaries on time at end-November.
“Yes, we do have challenges….there is an act that was implemented in 2020/22 or thereabouts,” said Mashatile. “Now we have lost a lot of funders as the ANC, who don’t want to be disclosed for various reasons. People want to donate to parties but they don’t want [it] to be published that they are donating.”
Mashatile said they are lobbying finance minister Enoch Godongwana and the National Treasury to increase funding of parties represented in the National Assembly, through the Represented Political Parties Fund.
We are trying to introduce a culture of self-sufficiency. We are quite clear that the era of getting support from businesses is no longer there
— Paul Mashatile, ANC deputy president
It is understood the ANC’s monthly wage bill runs into millions, with some sources in the party indicating it is as high as R10m. Mashatile did not mention a figure in this regard but said that their monthly salary bill is big.
“We do get funding from the state but it’s not enough, and that’s the challenge. We are engaging with the minister of finance to look at increasing funding for political parties,” he said.
“It’s not only the ANC that’s struggling. Other parties will tell you the same. It’s just the ANC is a big organisation, so our salary bill is quite heavy and that’s why the treasurer-general is struggling.
“But we’re making our members contribute what they can. For instance, with the meeting of councillors recently, all the provinces paid for their delegation to that engagement. The treasurer-general only had to deal with the venue and refreshments.”
Mashatile was referring to how the ANC asked its public representatives who are members of its NEC, such as ministers and MPs, to make contributions to the costs of holding its meetings in proportion to their salaries.
“We are doing the same with the upcoming NGC. All of us are contributing, and provinces. So we are trying to introduce a culture of self-sufficiency. We are quite clear that the era of getting support from businesses is no longer there.”
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