ITUMELENG MAFISA and NOXOLO MIYA
Johannesburg – ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe has refused to respond to questions concerning the funding of the party’s five-day conference at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Soweto.
The Star has learnt that the ANC failed to pay all its service providers for the conference. The party has also been experiencing some financial problems, with staff at Luthuli House going months without salaries.
It was not clear how much a conference with more than 4 000 delegates would cost the ANC. But it was a matter of public record that the party was in financial crisis.
Mabe said, “That information you will not get; we do not discuss the finances of the ANC,” Mabe said.
But Mabe admitted that there had been allegations of vote-buying during the conference.
He said there was no evidence of this, but there were media reports of vote-buying and vote-rigging.
Media reports suggested that lots of money was circulating at the conference, with delegates being bribed by potential seat-bearers.
The ANC was expected to announce its top leaders who were voted in during an IEC process, on Sunday night.
The Star