Cape Town - The R1.8 million bill the cash-strapped Western Cape ANC has owed the Cape Town International Convention Centre since it used the venue for its regional conference in February 2011 has still not been settled.
And now the party has to dig even deeper into its pockets after the Western Cape High Court granted default judgment against it for failing to pay Golden Arrow for the use of 77 buses to transport supporters to an event in Paarl, which took place a month after the CTICC event.
The provincial ANC now has to pay Golden Arrow R305 730, plus interest calculated from March 2011, and legal costs.
According to court papers, the party hired 77 single-decker buses to transport its passengers “to various locations in the Paarl area” on March 13, 2011. The papers did not specify details of the event in Paarl.
The party had its provincial manifesto launch in the Boland town, where President Jacob Zuma presented a keynote address at Dal Josaphat Stadium.
Golden Arrow’s action was instituted in January this year, and was postponed several times until last Wednesday, when default judgment was granted.
Provincial treasurer Fezile Calana told Weekend Argus this week that he was not aware of the court order. He added that the fact that the Western Cape branch had debt was no secret. The party had told the media on previous occasions about its financial woes.
Calana declined to answer questions related to previous cases involving arrears amounts, including the CTICC matter, saying that the media saw fit to highlight the ANC’s financial troubles over that of other parties.
Early last year the CTICC told the media that the matter was settled, and that it was agreed that the provincial ANC would pay the amount in monthly instalments of R100 000.
CTICC chief executive Rashid Toefy said an amount was paid four months ago. But a sum of more than R1.5m was still outstanding. The amount would not be written off, and he intended to write to the national ANC about the issue.
Weekend Argus