Johannesburg - ANC staff members stationed at Luthuli House continue to apply pressure on the party after they were not paid their salaries yet again.
In a letter sent to the ANC, disgruntled employees indicated they would be embarking on a strike on Thursday over the party’s failure to remunerate them for the month of August salary.
ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe on Thursday morning insisted that salary issues at Luthuli House had been communicated with employees.
He further said the ANC has been struggling to pay salaries of workers for the past few months which resulted in a nation-wide picket in July.
According to Mabe, members who dish out communications from leadership before asking relevant questions have sought to project that leadership under ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa is failing.
“A strange phenomenon has emerged now, especially because we have social media and all of that, when the ANC account and answer to staff that it is unable to perform because of the challenges it faces, the expectation is that disciplined staff members would then rather ask for a platform with the ANC to understand how the problem is being resolved,” said Mabe.
ANC staff representative committee spokesperson Mvusi Mdala in a statement said workers in all of its offices throughout the nine provinces, have been forced to take a difficult decision of downing tools with effect from August 26.
“This is due to the hard-line attitude taken by management to continuously disregard concerns raised by staff members during a nationwide picket held in June this year.
Management made numerous undertakings, both verbally and in writing, to address some of our demands by the end of August 2021,” said Mdala.
He added: “We demand that the national political leaders intervene and deal with the problem of staff on an urgent basis. We demand that all employees who have been with the organisation for more than 18 months to be deemed to be permanently employed. We demand our outstanding salaries of July and August to be paid immediately.”
The statement further read: “All contributions owed to the provident fund and UIF must also be paid immediately. The employer (ANC) must in writing commit to the demands above but also must indicate that their commitment is binding and as such an award that can be enforced through labour relations act processes.”
As the strike got under way, the ANC indicated that offices at the headquarters would be closed for the day.
Political Bureau