An election campaign service provider wants the Johannesburg High Court to urgently compel the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to redirect funding for the ANC to his company, to settle the R40-million the political party has owed him for seven years.
The unprecedented petition is contained in a notice of motion and founding affidavit of the urgent application Eltel Pty (Ltd) owner Asif Casoojee filed on Friday.
Casoojee’s company provided election campaigning-related services, such as digital media and technological support, to the ANC, in the build-up to the 2019 national and provincial elections.
At the time, the ANC owed the service provider just over R23m.
The debt has rocketed to almost double because of the 10.5% annual accrued interest.
Cited in the papers are the ANC, IEC and the party’s former treasurer-general Paul Mashatile.
In letters attached to the founding affidavit, Matashile acknowledges the debt.
Casoojee argues that his efforts to get the party to pay up have come to nought. Instead, one promise after another has been broken by the debt-prone and financially struggling party of Nelson Mandela, which has previously been cited for non-payment of its own workers.
Eltel says that the petition to compel the IEC to withhold funds allocated for the ANC under the Political Party Funding Act was a door the ANC opened in 2020, when Mashatile’s office said it was waiting for the IEC funds to settle the debt.
Casoojee wants the high court to make this an order before the November 4 elections.
He refers to four communications in which Mashatile promised to pay. On February 1, 2022, at the height of ANC bankruptcy, Mashatile wrote to Casoojee saying: “We want to pay you now, but [we are] battling with funding coming through! Our staff are on strike because they haven’t been paid their salaries! We are really trying!” Two months later, he wrote: “We have to wait for IEC to transfer first!” On April 11, Mashatile told Eltel bosses that the IEC funding had not been paid to the ANC. Eight days later, he said: “We haven’t received funding from IEC!”
The company told the court that it was clear from the communication that the party could settle its debt only through funds from IEC allocations but it would need to be compelled to do that. “The case for an immediate, source-level attachment of the [ANC’s] statutory allocations does not rest on mere commercial speculation,” reads Casoojee’s founding affidavit.
“[Mashatile] explicitly, systemically, and contractually represented that payment to Eltel was directly contingent upon, and would be executed out of, public funds dispersed by the [IEC]. The ANC has structurally earmarked the IEC’s public funding tranches as the primary liquidity pool out of which Eltel’s debt is to be satisfied.”
Casoojee said that as of last month, the ANC owed R40m, comprising the principal capital balance of R23.2-million and accumulated contractual interest of R13-million as well as R3-million in accumulated and contractually agreed legal fees.
Casoojee wants the high court to order the ANC to settle the debt in full by directing the IEC “to withhold any and all upcoming public funding tranches, allocations or representations due to the ANC under the Political Party Funding Act 6 of 2018”.
It wants the Mashatile to be responsible for fulfilling the court order, “with the final payment directives” set out by the court.
Casoojee also wants the ANC to be slapped with a cost order on a punitive scale.
- Eltel Pty Ltd owner Asif Casoojee has filed an urgent application in the Johannesburg High Court to compel the IEC to redirect funding meant for the ANC to settle a R40-million debt owed by the party.
- The debt relates to election campaigning services Eltel provided to the ANC before the 2019 elections, with the original amount of just over R23 million accruing 10.5% annual interest over seven years.
- ANC former treasurer-general Paul Mashatile acknowledged the debt in multiple communications, explaining payment delays due to reliance on IEC funding and the party’s financial struggles.
- Casoojee argues that the ANC has structurally earmarked IEC’s public funding as the primary source to settle the debt but has failed to pay despite promises.
- The application seeks a court order directing the IEC to withhold upcoming public funding to the ANC under the Political Party Funding Act until the debt is fully paid, with Mashatile held responsible for complying and the ANC paying punitive legal costs.
