While the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has launched an investigation into the funds used to settle the more than R102 million debt owed to Ezulweni Investments by the ANC, the company's lawyer, Shafique Sarlie, says that, based on the information at hand, no laws were broken.
This comes after an announcement was made in December that the ANC had settled out of court with Ezulweni, which had provided the party with banners and campaign materials for the 2019 elections.
The KwaZulu-Natal-based printing and marketing company previously put the process to liquidate the party on hold after stalwarts and loyalists came up with a plan to resolve the dispute.
However, earlier this month, ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont wrote to the IEC, requesting an investigation into the funds used by the ANC to settle the debt.
In response on Tuesday, the IEC said: “The commission would like to confirm that the matter involving the ANC and the settlement of its debt owed to Ezulweni Investments is being attended to in line with the prescripts of the Political Party Funding Act 6 of 2018.”
Beaumont questioned how the party was able to settle the debt when six months prior, ANC employees had protested over non-payment of salaries and the disclosed party donations, released a few weeks ago, showed the party had received R10m in the last quarter of the year.
He said the donation of R10m could not have funded any market-related debt settlement.
“Any market-related debt settlement would have required a much higher percentage of upfront payment.
“We also know there could not have been any discount greater than R100 000 because that itself would have required a disclosure by Ezulweni Investments in the quarter in question and that didn’t take place.”
Beaumont added that the ANC was also able to host a rally at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban recently just months after the settlement.
“The concern goes beyond the Party Funding Act to see whether South Africans are actually paying for this debt settlement through tenders and state contracts going forward.”
He said that while the IEC did not indicate a timeline in which it would get back to ActionSA regarding the investigation, the commission could not ignore “the Constitutional Court imperative that voters must go to the polls informed”.
Sarlie told “The Mercury“ on Thursday he had not consulted with his client since the settlement meeting was held with the ANC in December.
The ANC was approached for comment but had not responded by deadline on Thursday.
The Mercury