The ANC’s financial woes just keep piling up.
This comes after Ezulweni Investments obtained a high court order to start attaching assets belonging to the party, as part of a settlement for the R102m the ANC owes it for its 2019 election campaign posters.
Sunday Times Daily has seen a copy of the Gauteng South high court order dated December 7.
It gives the sheriff of the court powers to attach assets belonging to the governing party, and to auction them off until the total amount owed to Ezulweni is settled.
The order authorises Ezulweni to first attach movable assets including vehicles and furniture.
Should those assets fail to settle the total debt owed, the Durban-based company will be allowed to proceed and attach immovable property, including buildings.
The execution order is likely to compound the already precarious financial position of the ANC, which has been battling to service its other debts and regularly struggles to pay the salaries of its staff members on scheduled dates.
It was not immediately clear what assets the ANC owned could be attached.
The ANC had not responded to questions by the time of publication.
Ezulweni Investment’s lawyer Shafique Sarlie confirmed the order granted in favour of his clients.
Sarlie also accused the ANC of being nonchalant about its debts to his clients.
The ANC is completely indifferent to their dire situation, notwithstanding having benefited greatly from the services rendered in the 2019 election. It is conduct that is nothing short of theft.
— Ezulweni Investment’s lawyer Shafique Sarlie
“We have given the judgment debtor, the ANC, a fair chance to make some proposal to resolve this debt,” said Sarlie.
“My client is bleeding under the enormous debt incurred by it and its owners in fulfilling such an enormous contract. The ANC is completely indifferent to their dire situation, notwithstanding having benefited greatly from the services rendered in the 2019 election. It is conduct that is nothing short of theft.”
The attachment order against the ANC comes after the high court last month rejected its application to appeal a previous ruling that found the ANC had a binding verbal agreement with Ezulweni for supplying street posters for the 2019 general election.
The posters cost more than R100m.
Ezulweni took the matter to court after the ANC refused to pay them, claiming it had not signed a contract with them.
The South Gauteng high court then found that an ANC application for leave to appeal had no reasonable prospect of success, saying the verbal agreement with Ezulweni was binding.
At the time, Ezulweni Investments threatened to seek an execution order to attach assets of the cash-strapped governing party, giving them until Friday to file papers in the Supreme Court of Appeal — even though the ANC had up to 30 days to file an application with the superior court in Bloemfontein.
Sunday Times Daily understands that Ezulweni Investments had given the ANC until last Friday to make some form of a “proposal” but the party did not.
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