By Zukile Majova
Political Editor
The ANC is now convinced it can avoid paying R102 million to an aggrieved supplier.
Having lost in the high court and the Supreme Court of Appeal, the party is going to the Constitutional Court where it plans to simply deny, deny and deny.
Printing and public relations company Ezulweni Investments has secured a court order to seize assets belonging to the ruling party to recover R102 million owed by Luthuli House since 2019.
The company says it produced over 30,000 posters, banners and other election material as part of the ANC’s 2019 election campaign.
But the ruling party has been running away from paying.
On Wednesday, party Secretary General Fikile Mbalula told a media briefing that they had never awarded such a contract to the BEE company.
Asked about his signature on the contract papers, Mbalula, who was the ANC chief of campaigns at the time, said he had never signed the documents.
So how did Ezulweni Investments get the ANC contract?
Mbalula said it was done by naughty junior staff at the ANC HQ and done behind his back and that will be the crux of the party’s argument before the ConCourt.
“The alleged debt to Ezulweni was surprising given our lack of engagement with them. Upon learning of this supposed debt, we initiated an investigation to understand its origins.
“It emerged that two junior staff members, without authorisation from either myself or the TG (then-treasurer general Paul Mashatile) had been dealing with Ezulweni,” he said.
Mbalula said the ANC leadership “did not sanction these interactions”.
The ANC boss also denied allegations that one of the junior staffers was his relative.
“I’ve got no blood relationship except comradeship with this individual.”
He said the ANC has since commissioned its own forensic investigation, hoping its findings would be considered by the court. But the SCA judges disregarded the report and dismissed the ANC’s case.
“The investigation completed early in 2023 revealed criminality and corruption between Ezulweni and the unauthorised staff members.
“Based on these findings we sought to introduce the forensic report as evidence in the Supreme Court of Appeal. However the SCA dismissed this aspect of the appeal, thus rejecting the entire appeal,” he said.
This week, security guards at Luthuli House barricaded the building to block the sheriff from entering and seizing assets.
The next leg of this showdown will be before the highest court in the land where if the ANC case fails, Mbalula said the ANC will make arrangements to pay.
