Johannesburg - ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte on Tuesday assured the governing party’s staff that their concerns about non-payment of salaries and other statutory deductions were receiving attention from its leaders.
Duarte addressed picketing ANC staff outside its head office Luthuli House in downtown Johannesburg after they handed over a memorandum of demands.
”We are looking into all these matters and the national officials at their meeting on Monday resolved to meet with you as the staff within the next coming days or the next week,” she promised ANC staff.
According to Duarte, the national officials remain committed to working with all ANC structures to find a solution to the problem.
”The current cash flow problems faced by the movement are as a result of a variety of factors which as you say is not your concern but we need to put it to you including the general economic situation, the implementation of the Represented Political Party Funding Act since April this year as well as an urgent need to modernise the ANC’s operational and funding model,” Duarte explained.
She said the ANC has a plan in place to manage the outstanding payments due to the provident fund and all other third party contributions.
However, Duarte indicated to the party’s employees that they may not always receive their salaries on payday.
”We are committed to paying staff salaries and whilst the payment may not be at the end of the month every month there will be a monthly payment. We communicated this to the staff liaison committee when we requested a three-month window to assist us in this period where we are trying very hard to raise the money … We are committed to concluding the process of addressing the situation head-on within the shortest space of time,” she added.
The difficult situation faced by the staff and the ANC as a movement will require sober and decisive action, according to Duarte.
In its memorandum of demands, the ANC Staff Forum complained about the chronic non-payment of salaries, which they say has created problems for them since it started four years ago, no provident fund contributions paid for the past three years, no salary increases since 2018 as well as the failure to pay Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) deductions.
”As employees, we have served the ANC with utmost dedication in ensuring that it executes the mandate given to it by the people of South Africa and as such we should be treated with dignity by the organisation,” reads the memorandum.
ANC staff are demanding that the national political leadership intervene and deal with their problems on an urgent basis.
Other demands include hiring all employees permanently who have been with the ANC for more than 18 months and paying outstanding salaries not later than seven days from Tuesday.
They also want contributions owed to the provident fund and the UIF to be paid by no later than July 30 and the ANC to commit in writing to meeting their demands and indicate that its commitment is binding and as such be an award that can be enforced in terms of the Labour Relations Act processes.
The employees also want the ANC to never withdraw the medical aid benefit without consulting employees and all workers who took part in Tuesday’s action not be subjected to the “no work, no pay” policy.
”All issues raised in this memorandum are raised in good faith and are a product of long drawn interaction between us and the management of the ANC. Should the leadership of the ANC nationally not respond to all our demands within seven days we shall be left with no alternative but to intensify the campaign by the workers,” the forum warned.
Political Bureau