The historic R150-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.
The threat comes after the ANC allegedly gave the company a run-around 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 a few 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.
“It appears the ANC has become ignorant of the extension that Ezulweni Investments has given the party and furthermore continues to abuse time periods for payments, amounts paid and withholding adequate communication.
“As the governing party of South Africa, responsible for the reputation of the country and its citizens, it is immensely unprofessional to arrange meetings and cancel just hours before, without considering the fact that Ezulweni Investments also has other clients, travel time and other matters to deal with.
“Above all, Ezulweni Investments has repeatedly put the ANC as its priority, but the ANC could not and has never done the same. The ANC could not honour simple meetings repeatedly, which is frustrating.
“Please inform us as to what time we will have our proof of payment tomorrow (August 1) for this quarter (we are aware that you have received your IEC allocation). We are confident that you have not repeated your previous mistake of not allocating the agreed payment to Ezulweni.
“You are welcome to meet with your forensic auditors at your convenience. We are not interested in meeting with anyone besides those mentioned in ANC payment plan, as we both aimed to agree to resolve this matter in good faith. We also wish to bring to your attention that it is your signature on the contract that you are currently in breach of. We have full rights as per our legal advice to honour the writ of execution,” reads the letter sent to the ANC.
The company added that the ANC is manipulating the country into believing that it has fully paid its debt so that the ANC could contest the elections,” reads the letter seen by Sunday World.
The company added that it has identified a pattern that whenever a payment is due, the ANC solicits a meeting to either prolong payment, negotiate discounts or find faults to delay due payments.
Ramakgopa responded by sending the party’s lawyers, who persisted in disputing the invoices sent by Ezulweni to be paid. “On the advice of our client’s legal counsel, no payment will be effectuated, and our client invites you to a meeting with its forensic auditor so that you may be apprised of developments from the last payment to date.
“You elected not to attend the meeting as mentioned at your own peril, as stated in paragraph 4 of your letter, which is unfortunate. We are uncertain as to what prompted the altered mindset.
“We are led to believe that you initially accepted the meeting with our client’s forensic auditor and also enquired whether your accountants could be present. Our client informed you without contradiction that you are welcome to bring any advisor or participant to the said meeting.
“As a matter of law, we deem it appropriate to correct you when you state in part ‘as per our legal advice’ to honour the writ of execution,” the ANC lawyers responded in a letter dated August 1 2025.
