Two years after it was voted out of power, the ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay is so broke it can barely cater for its members – let alone pay its R200,000 municipal bill.
Earlier this year, the municipality had cut the power to the party’s Florence Matomela offices when it defaulted on its debt and donors dried up, regional treasurer Mbulelo Gidane said this week.
Businesspeople who had been its most loyal funders had abandoned the party as soon as it lost control of the metro, Gidane said.
“Let me scare you immediately – asinamali [we do not have money].
“We are currently sitting at a deficit. Financially, our situation is critically bad.“You’ve got activities taking place all the time, such as the Youth Day celebrations recently held at Bayworld which was not funded by us because we didn’t have money.
“We went to the Missionvale campus for the Relevance of Youth Formations event because of our relationship with them.
“We were given the venue for free, but people did not eat.”
Last month, the party hosted a poorly attended event at the Zwide cemetery to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the Freedom Charter.
Supporters were hosted in a small tent, where a pocket and-a-half of oranges and four 2l bottles of cooldrink were shared between them.
This was a far cry from the generous catering and food parcels which previously marked ANC events.
Asked about the low turnout, Gidane said: “If you want to call ANC people to attend events, you must bus them, and we did not have the means to do that.”
A string of service providers used by the previous regional executive committee and the regional task team (RTT) were owed hundreds of thousands of rands, Gidane said.
They included the Eastcape Training Centre, the venue used for the regional elective conference where former president Jacob Zuma made a brief appearance last year.
Gidane said the ANC’s brand had become so weakened that it was difficult to get influential people to appear at the party’s fundraising events.
“[In January], I tried organising transport to East London.
“I spoke to about five businesspeople and they promised until the very last day [to assist] and never came through, and eventually we forked out the money out of our own pockets.
“Even memorial services for some of our stalwarts that require money for decor, food, flowers and transport, we can’t do those things because there are no resources,” he said.
“Once you’re not in office of government, no businesspeople listen to you and it’s very difficult to go to province to ask for money.
“The provincial leadership assisted us when our electricity in Matomela House was cut off.
“We appreciated that, but you can’t run an organisation the size of the ANC with handouts.”
Gidane said they had inherited debt from the previous regional executive committee and RTT, which had not honoured arrangements made with the municipality and the service providers.
“They were very, very, very reckless, I’d say.” In his book, How To Steal A City, Crispian Olver – who was also part of the ANC RTT’s fundraising committee – revealed how it had become difficult to raise funds for the party.
He wrote: “The region’s coffers were empty. Donors doubted the ANC’s ability to manage funds properly and were reluctant to pitch in.”Asked if the roving ANC minibuses with a picture of Zuma’s face was an act of defiance against President Cyril Ramaphosa, Gidane said: “The president of the ANC is Cyril, we just don’t have money to rebrand our buses.”
Hoping to win back the metro, Gidane said they needed R26m to run a successful campaign and they hoped to get at least R15m from the provincial leadership.
“If we can do things right, if we can stop fighting each other, then we will take back this metro.”
Acting municipal chief financial officer Jackson Ngcelwane said the ANC owed R242,311 in rates and services.
“The ANC had a meeting with the municipality. The required downpayment has been made. We are awaiting the supporting documents . . . to finalise the arrangement.”