ANC vows to cut excess staff

• Party’s treasurer-general confirms that audit has uncovered irregularities on its payroll

The ANC will leave no office untouched in its effort to reduce its bloated salary bill, and a reduction of staff by almost half is possible, says Paul Mashatile, the treasurergeneral. The ANC is in financial ruin, amid mounting debt to the SA Revenue Service and the nonpayment of benefits to employees’ provident and pension funds.

The ANC will leave no office untouched in its effort to reduce its bloated salary bill, and a reduction of staff by almost half is possible, says Paul Mashatile, the party’s treasurer-general.

The governing party has been struggling to pay staff salaries on time since 2019. It is in financial ruin, amid mounting debt to the SA Revenue Service (Sars) and the nonpayment of benefits to employees’ provident and pension funds. By June 5, ANC staffers had not yet received their salaries.

Business Day’s sister newspaper, Sunday Times, reported in May that the ANC owed Sars at least R80m in PAYE deductions it had failed to pass on to the tax collector.

The party is in arrears for at least 28 months — about R140m — on its provident fund payments. All of these had been deducted from salaries, according to staffers.

Speaking to radio station 702 on Monday, Mashatile confirmed that the party is auditing its employees and has found a number of ghost workers on its payroll. He said a report on the party’s financial woes, recommending a staff cut, was compiled in 2019 but was not acted on due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We then took a decision to wait until the situation gets better because that report basically points to the fact that we need to cut down on staff and we just felt it was not the right time to do that, so we delayed the report. We have now revised it and officials have agreed that our salary bill is unsustainable,” he said.

Ghost workers and those approaching pensionable age are expected to be the first to be removed from the wage bill.

“The team doing the report believes that we could do with half the number of people we have at the moment, but we have agreed that the way to do it, firstly, is to look at people who are approaching pensionable age, [get] those out of the system first. You look at changing some of the functions because during the pandemic, there are some functions that have become redundant.”

SALARY BILL

The Sunday Times reported that one of the biggest sources of the ballooning salary bill is the secretary-general’s office, which employed about 20 people, more than double the number before Ace Magashule took office. The presidency is said to have about 10 on its payroll.

Mashatile said there was nothing untoward about this. It had been going on for a long time in various departments.

“I wouldn’t just blame his office, we have asked the team to look at all offices. It is true, though, that sometimes when new leaders come in they would like to bring certain people on board, while the others are still in the system [and are] pushed ... to other departments.

“We all have to take the blame for it, all leaders have agreed. So there will be no holy cow that his office must not be touched. We are looking at all offices from the presidency [down].”

The office of ANC deputy president David Mabuza has employed former youth league president Collen Maine as an adviser. Asked about the relevance of the position, Mashatile said ANC officials could decide to get rid of it.

“There will be no holy cow — we are looking at all offices and we may well come to the conclusion that [a] function is not necessary, so we might be very brutal in the way we deal with this matter.”

Disgruntled ANC employees are expected to protest outside party headquarters, Luthuli House, in Johannesburg and at regional offices today to air their grievances.

Asked if the party was struggling to pay salaries because it was bankrupt, Mashatile said no. He attributed the lack of finances to uncertainty from donors as the Political Party Funding Act was being implemented, which finally came into effect on April 1.

“No, we are not bankrupt — the problem is that funding from donors has been trickling in as opposed to previous years.

“You may recall that as of April 1 we have a law that governs how political parties receive their funding. Since the advent of the new law ... there has been a great reluctance from many businesses to donate, because of disclosure, so as a result we struggle to get money on time,” he said.

“It may well be that the reluctance now is also because people may be accused of getting tenders from the ANC, so they stay away, but there is also another factor ... since the pandemic in 2020 and the lockdown of the economy, many business have been struggling,” Mashatile said.

GHOST WORKERS AND THOSE APPROACHING PENSIONABLE AGE ARE EXPECTED TO BE THE FIRST TO BE REMOVED