‘Stop showing off your wealth,’ Ramaphosa tells ANC while party staff picket over pay outside

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.

In June 2022, Daily Maverick reported that the party had not paid staff salaries.

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.

“If the ANC knows it is unable to pay workers, it should rather communicate the non-payment so workers could make other plans,” said Semenya.

ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu told journalists earlier in the day that the workers had a right to picket.

Bhengu said she understood why workers were picketing even though 90% of them had been paid.

“Well, that is not unique to the ANC. If you followed the trade union movement and trade unions, they will reach a settlement with the employer, but there will be that particular issue around which there’s still there’s some discontent.

“And they are within their rights to protest… It is the prerogative of the union to decide whether to suspend the protest because, indeed, 90% of staff have been paid,” she said.

Bhengu said the party’s focus should be on “ensuring that our staff are well looked after, being paid on time. That is our focus, and it needs to be corrected.”

‘ANC is no place for criminals’

During his political address, Ramaphosa described an ANC facing several challenges: electoral loss, corruption and party renewal.

But while he mentioned the protections afforded to workers, which were negotiated with the tripartite alliance, he did not mention the party’s picketing workers.

In a wide-ranging speech, the President focused on party discipline, the party’s dismal 2024 election results and, of course, party renewal.

“A renewed ANC must enforce discipline in the ranks of our membership,” said the party leader.

Ramaphosa continued: “Those whose conduct conflicts with our values and principles, the criminals, the corrupt, the careerists, extortionists, factionalists and those who actively work against the organisation should find themselves outside of the African National Congress.”

Read more: ‘Ramaphosa’s going nowhere,’ says Mashatile amid reports of ANC factions plotting president’s removal

Delivering feedback, particularly on the party’s dismal 2024 election campaign, Ramaphosa said he did not see the party go door-to-door, which was usually one of its key campaigning tools during elections.

The ANC, Ramaphosa said, needed to go back to basics by “being closely connected to our people”.

“We did not do vigorous door-to-door, and as a result, on election day, that’s why we saw so many people staying away from the polls, and in part it was largely because they had never been touched by the ANC visiting their homes, visiting the various locales that they go to.”

‘Back to basics’

During the 2024 national elections, the ANC dropped below 50% of the vote for the first time, receiving only 40.18%. In 2019, it received 57.5%.

While the ANC still received the most votes, it needed a coalition to govern, and thus, Ramaphosa said, the ANC National Executive Committee decided it would be best to form the Government of National Unity (GNU).

“We must therefore, as we approach the next local government elections, ensure that we go back to basics, we go back to what has made us a strong organisation, being closely connected and rooted with our people,” Ramaphosa said.

There was a need to renew values and political culture by “reintroducing meaningful initiative to engage communities and serve them”.

He said a culture of humility and modesty should be encouraged, while the culture of showing off “to our people, either our wealth, our cars as we drive in our communities, must come to an end”.

The four-day NGC, which will examine the party’s performance and implementation of its resolutions since its national conference in 2022, concludes on Thursday. DM