The ANC’s National General Council kicked off on Monday with a picket by employees over late salary payments and a warning from President Cyril Ramaphosa to party members to stop flaunting their wealth. When ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa kicked off the party’s National General Council (NGC), he spoke of the protections afforded to workers via the Tripartite Alliance. What he did not mention was the ANC workers who had earlier protested against their monthly salaries not being paid on time.
The NGC – the ANC’s mid-term review between national conferences – began on Monday morning, 8 December, in Boksburg, Gauteng, with convoys of sports cars and SUVs lining the entrance to Birchwood Conference Centre. While the cars entered and left the venue to drop off ANC ministers and delegates, a group of ANC staffers, led by their union, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), picketed outside the venue. On Sunday, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said 90% of party staff had been paid, with only senior management, such as himself, still waiting for their salaries.
This is not the first time ANC staff have been left unpaid. It’s a consistent problem that has been reported on several times. InJune 2022,Daily Maverick reported that the party had not paid staff salaries.
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Nehawu deputy secretary for the ANC’s Walter Sisulu branch, Dan Semenya, told Daily Maverick on Monday, “The issue of unpaid salaries or delayed payment of salaries does not only relate [to] this month. It’s a recurring issue that the staff has been going through.” “There are, of course, staff members that have been paid, and a sizeable number of those … have been paid, but our picket is not limited to only the non-payment of salaries,” he said. “We have issues that relate to our problem of fund contributions that have not been paid.
We have issues that relate to medical aid,” said Semenya. “In … recent weeks, we have had members who go to either a doctor or medical institutions. When they arrive there, it’s only then they’ll be told that the medical aid has been suspended because of non-payment of our contribution,” he said.
Semenya warned this could have an impact on the health of not only ANC employees, but their families. He said the problem was that the management had not told staff that items such as the medical aid contributions had not been paid.
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