ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri has slammed the Sheriff’s Office for their attempts to seize assets at the party’s headquarters on Monday morning, saying that it was irregular and illegal.
Bhengu-Motsiri said they had an agreement with Ezulweni Investment Company to hold off the liquidation order until their payment matter was heard in court.
“ANC lawyers wrote to their counterparts, advising that we have approached the Constitutional Court. We had a call between them as legal teams, agreeing that they would advise the Sheriff to hold off on the liquidation order,” she said.
This is after the ruling party failed to settle its bill with Ezulweni Investments, a KwaZulu-Natal-based printing and marketing company that supplied it with posters and banners in the 2019 elections.
However, Bhengu-Motsiri described the activities that took place outside the party’s headquarters as a political stunt and not as a legal matter anymore.
This comes after the Sheriff of the High Court in Johannesburg rocked up on Monday to seize assets worth more than R102 million from the ruling party.
She said the ANC has the money to settle the debt with Ezulweni, but due to fraud suspicions, it has to undergo further investigations into the matter.
“The ANC has the money to settle the matter, but we are not settling it; that’s why we are exercising our rights like any other legal entity in this country. We have a right,” she said.
For the record, she said the party has cleared all its debts for 2023.
“The ANC has met all its financial obligations to staff members and creditors with whom the party has had historical debts,” she said.
She added that this included paying off the South African Revenue Service (Sars), bank and municipal bills, and other service providers.
Furthermore, She said they have opened criminal charges against those who were found by the forensic investigation to have appropriated the powers to themselves to run the deal with the printing company.
Previously, the Supreme Court of Appeal had dismissed the ANC's appeal against a high court judgment that the party was responsible for the outstanding amount for election material in 2019.
She said the ANC will appeal the decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in the Ezulweni matter in the Constitutional Court of South Africa.
kamogelo.moichela@inl.co.za
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