ANC asks senior civil servants for donations to help fund the party

The ANC has sent the begging bowl to senior civil servants, asking them to help fund the party.

A letter seen by the Sunday Times asks public servants to agree to have monthly deductions made from their bank accounts.

This week, several government officials confirmed that they had been asked to help to keep the ANC afloat. Directors-general, who are the administrative heads of government departments, were expected to contribute R3700 a month.

Opposition parties were outraged by the ANC's aggressive fundraising among bureaucrats, saying it was conflating "the state with the ANC", but the party's secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe, was unrepentant about seeking donations.

"We are raising funds from our members. Do you want the ANC to have no money? If we raise money from companies, you say why is the ANC raising money from companies," he said.

He said R3 700 was nothing to directors-general, who earned close to R2-million a year. "How much do they earn - what is the issue about R3000?"

The ANC's move could be in contravention of public service regulations, which stipulate that civil servants should "serve the public in an unbiased and impartial manner in order to create confidence in the public service".

The fundraising efforts are an extension of a common ANC practice. The party has always collected monthly levies from cabinet ministers, MPs, premiers and other public representatives who are elected to positions on its ticket.

But this is the first time it has aggressively gone after those employed by the state at a professional level.

In the letter to public servants, the ANC says that the solicitation is in line with a resolution taken at the party's national conference in Mangaung, Free State.

That resolution allowed the office of the ANC's treasurer-general, Zweli Mkhize, "to recruit ANC deployees, members and supporters," to help to keep the party "financially healthy".

"You are hereby requested to support this campaign by contributing monthly to the ANC via this debit order form system that will be administered by the ANC's treasury department," the letter states.

Not all ANC deployees have been charmed by the begging letter.

A deputy director-general and long-standing member of the ANC said the party's new approach was wrong.

"They called me and asked me for my e-mail address so that they could send me a debit order form. But I will never do that.

"It is acceptable for MPs and councillors to be expected to contribute monthly to the party, but not public servants," he said.

The deputy director-general said that some of those who received the ANC e-mail would feel pressured to contribute because they would believe their jobs depended on their donations.

"Now, we don't know what happens if [we] decide not to pay. Will we be employed in the future?"

But a director-general, who declined to be named, said there was nothing sinister in the move.

"This is just according to an ANC resolution, which said members from all sectors should contribute what they can. From how I understand it, it's the same as business people who contribute out of their own will."

When it transpired that Sunday Times reporters were talking to several senior civil servants this week about the story, Mkhize issued a press statement justifying the financial request and denying that it threatened the independence of the public service.

"As a membership-based organisation, contributions and donations by members are the ANC's main source of funding. This practice is an ongoing fundraising strategy of the organisation and targets members, supporters and sympathisers in both the private and public sector and across all provinces ...

"The ANC categorically rejects any attempt to link voluntary and unconditional financial contributions by members, supporters and sympathisers of the ANC to the acquisition or retention of any jobs in the public sector," said Mkhize.

He was not available for further comment.

Opposition leaders were livid when they heard of the ANC's fundraising tactic.

DA parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane said this was an ANC attempt to "hijack" the state.

"It compromises the independence of the state. It conflates the state with the ANC. It means that the state and the ANC become one. The state will always pay allegiance to the ANC."

Congress of the People leader Mosiuoa Lekota said the ANC move was a violation of public servants' constitutional rights.

"Public servants must not be beholden to any ruling party. They must be independent," said Lekota.

But Mantashe insisted that there was nothing wrong with asking civil servants to pay part of their salaries to the party.

"The ANC is raising funds from among its members. It won't force a DA member to pay a stop order," he said.

Those who did not contribute, he said, were not ANC members.

Constitutional law expert Professor Shadrack Gutto said such a move by the ANC meant public servants would not be able to adhere to their code of conduct.

"It is creating a special category of citizens who will be coerced to pay. It will encroach on their civil rights as there will be a fee levied on them for being deployed.

"Their loyalty will depend on serving the ANC rather than serving the nation," he said.