Private Company Moves To Freeze R40 Million In ANC Account — Election Funds & Staff Salaries At Risk

Bailiffs arrived at the ANC’s Luthuli House headquarters in Johannesburg on Thursday morning carrying court papers that could strip Africa’s oldest liberation movement of nearly R40 million sitting across multiple bank accounts — money ring-fenced for elections, donor contributions, and monthly payroll.

The unnamed private creditor allegedly obtained a civil judgment after the ANC failed to honour a financial obligation stretching back more than seven years, and attorneys acting for the firm have now moved to attach accounts at institutions that include FNB, Standard Bank, and Nedbank. Among the funds targeted are those earmarked for the party’s upcoming electoral operations and the salaries of hundreds of permanent Luthuli House employees. Court papers, seen by this publication, indicate the debt principal exceeds R28 million, with interest and legal costs pushing the total enforcement amount to R39.8 million.

ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsepe told journalists on Thursday afternoon that the organisation was “aware of the matter” and that its legal team was studying the documents. She declined to name the creditor or confirm which financial institutions received the attachment notices. Treasury officials within the organisation had not issued a formal statement by publication deadline, and the party’s national treasurer Gwen Ramokgopa’s office did not answer calls placed before midday.

Long-standing financial mismanagement has dogged the governing party for well over a decade. Internal audit reports leaked between 2019 and 2022 flagged chronic cash-flow shortfalls, unpaid suppliers, and mounting litigation exposure totalling hundreds of millions of rands. The organisation borrowed aggressively ahead of the 2024 general elections and finished that campaign with a reduced parliamentary majority — and, sources close to headquarters now confirm, a substantially depleted reserve balance.

Outside Luthuli House on Thursday, a catering worker who delivers lunch daily to the building’s canteen stood with her invoice book pressed against her chest and quietly asked whether she would “still get paid at month-end.” She has not been paid for October.

What remains unanswered is the question that every shop steward, party staffer, and ward volunteer across nine provinces is now asking behind closed hands: if a court ultimately enforces that attachment and freezes those accounts before November’s payroll run, who inside Luthuli House will tell two hundred workers that their children’s school-fee debit orders will bounce — and whether anyone in leadership actually has a plan?

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