The high court has ordered the ANC to pay more than R21-million to a service provider it hired for 2024 election propaganda, adding to the cash-strapped party’s severe financial woes.
The ANC has been slapped with a court order to pay the Sisonke consortium, trading as O’Brian Digital, R20,878,220.22 for election campaign services. The party stopped paying after its dismal election performance.
Sisonke was appointed in August 2023 for a 10-month contract to handle marketing, media, and communication for the ANC’s 2024 national and provincial elections campaign.
The total service cost was R72-million, of which the ANC paid only R51 million before halting payments.
After the May 2024 election defeat, the ANC simply stopped paying. Sisonke spent over 18 months pursuing the ANC’s finance office, headed by treasurer-general Dr Gwen Ramokgopa, before finally taking the party to court in August last year.
The ANC ignored the court application entirely, filing no opposing papers. This allowed Sisonke to secure a default judgement on December 2.
The order states, “It is ordered that the (ANC) pay the applicants an amount of R 20,878,220.22, with interest thereon at the rate of 11% from the date of default to the date of payment, and costs of this application at scale C of the high court tariffs,” reads the judgement delivered on December 2.
This is not the first time the ANC has been found on the wrong side of money issues over election-related services.
For the past five years, the party has been huffing and puffing, avoiding paying more than R100m to Ezulweni, a company that assisted the ANC with communication and marketing services during the 2019 general elections.
This time around, it is the Sisonke Consortium trading under O’Brian Digital Pty (Ltd).
In the founding affidavit, O’Brian Digital director Mxolisi Tyawa details the genesis of the impasse with the ANC and drops names of people involved during the whole saga.
“This application is precipitated by an amount of indebtedness owed to the applicants by the respondent (ANC) arising out of a contractual agreement entered into by both the applicants and the respondent,” writes Tyawa.
“On or about May 2023, as the applicants, we responded to a bid invitation from the respondent that sought services of a service provider to act as their media and communication agency for their 2024 National and Provincial General Elections.
“On 2 August 2023, a letter from the Office of the Treasurer-General (Ramokgopa) was received informing us as applicants that we have been selected as the successful media and communication partner with effect from 1 August 2023,” he continued.
“The applicants were paid from time to time for the services rendered after submission of their invoices to dedicated officials appointed by the
Applicants will also demonstrate that the balance outstanding was never disputed by the respondent’s officials. In fact, the applicants will prove that there are numerous promises and undertakings from the respondent assuring payment of the outstanding balance.”
In this regard, Tyawa attached to the court documents a transcript of his conversations with ANC CFO Mzo Msomi, who is stalling him by making several empty promises to pay.
Sometimes, the ANC CFO would just ignore text messages from Tyawa and bury his head in the sand, leaving the man speaking to himself like a madman for weeks on end.
Such was the case between August 7, 2024, and September 30, when Msomi blue-ticked Tyawa throughout the seven weeks.
On the 7th, Tyama had texted Msomi, saying, “Morning, my good sir, do share the PoP (proof of payment) at your earliest convenience.”
Msomi went mute, and daily texts from Tyawa were ignored, and he gave up, stating on September 25, “You disappeared and went quiet on me. Please confirm if any payment will be made this month-end.”
By January 2025, the merry-go-round was persistent, with promises of paying before Christmas in 2024 having been flouted.
Tyawa unleashed his lawyers in February 2025 to issue a letter of demand to the ANC, which was also ignored, and he waited another six months before the high court application in August last year.
The ANC was again nonchalant by not bothering to oppose the application, with Tyawa pressing for a default judgement four months ago, which was granted to him on a silver platter.
The ANC did not respond to questions sent on Friday.
