Payments stopped after a few months

The historic Ri50-million debt of the ANC to Ezulweni Investment has come back to haunt the former majority party after it allegedly defaulted on making quarterly repayments, and the latter is now threatening to take the party to court once again.

- By Sihle Mavuso

The threat comes after the ANC allegedly gave the company a runaround after making a few payments based on the December 2023 out-of-court settlement.

The settlement was reached after Ezulweni went to court to liquidate the ANC and the liquidation would have prevented the party from taking part in the May 2024 elections.

To avert that, it reached out to the company for a settlement whose details were never disclosed, but sparked calls to the IEC to investigate how the ANC got the money to settle the debt that was accrued when the company printed election material for the party in 2019.

It now appears that the ANC made afew payments, then queried some of the invoices and demanded a meeting with the owner of the Newcastle-based company. That annoyed the owner, who wrote to the party and demanded his payment or he would go to court.

This is contained in a letter dated July 1, which was sent to Gwen Ramakgopa, the ANC’s treasurer-general.

The company said it is utterly disappointed and dissatisfied with how the ANC is conducting business whilst still expecting Ezulweni to be tolerant, forgiving and permissive.