ancCity Press reports that African National Congress (ANC) staffers are adamant that they will not go back to work unless all the party’s employees are paid their salaries in full.

The political party’s staff representative Mvusi Mdala advised last week that five staff members had still not received their salaries for last month. Six others have not been paid since October. Four of the staff members are based in North West, six are in the Free State and one works for the party in the Western Cape. This is despite ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile assuring the media on Thursday that all party employees had been paid their outstanding salaries. In the past two weeks, ANC staff members downed tools after realising that the party had no clear plan to resolve the unpaid salaries crisis. Mdala said the workers had decided to continue with their court action against the party because there was no indication that their benefits, such as medical aid, pension fund and unemployment insurance fund (UIF) contributions, had been paid. He indicated:   “Even if it was just one person who was still not paid, we would have a problem. We cannot say that, because the majority of the staff members have been paid, we can go back to work. We also need to get a special resolution about our benefits from management because it affects those who would want to resign or retire. We have no guarantee that we will be paid next month, but for now, we are focusing on those who have not been paid." In the court documents lodged last week, union Nehawu asked that the entities administering the staff members’ benefits, including the SA Revenue Service, the UIF, Medshield medical aid scheme and insurance company Sanlam, compel the ANC to make the payments on behalf of employees.


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