If I were the treasurer general …
The three ANC leaders who have put their names forward for the treasurer general position talk about how the office can be improved
The ANC’S treasurer general position looks set to be a battle between former ANC Youth League leaders, with three erstwhile young lions about to go head to head as campaign season kicks off.
The Mail & Guardian spoke to the three contenders who have confirmed their availability for the position: national spokesperson Pule Mabe, former youth league deputy president Andile Lungisa and Ekurhuleni chair Mzwandile Masina.
The treasurer general position is arguably the toughest in the top six. The governing party has been struggling financially and incurring a deficit in its financial records year after year.
The current treasurer general, Paul Mashatile, who is hoping to emerge as the deputy president, has been criticised because the ANC has failed to pay some of its staff. In additon, the party owes close to R102-million in taxes to the SA Revenue Service.
Last month, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority confirmed the ANC owed R86-million in provident fund contributions for about 530 staff members.
Mzwandile Masina
The Ekurhuleni chairperson says part of the problem faced by the party is that its economic transformation committee (ETC) and policy unit tend to operate in silos.
He says this results in the confusion that often characterises the ANC’S position on economic policy — with the organisation failing to align its own economic resolutions to the policy trajectory of the government it has been mandated to lead.
“The organisation should consider merging the ETC and policy unit and locating their work within the treasury,” he says.
“The treasurer general of the ANC must be a custodian, not just of the funds and property of the organisation, but of its economic policy, which must in turn influence the policy direction of the government that the party leads.
“This would necessitate the merging of the ETC and policy unit, to give coherence to a treasury office that develops and articulates economic policy at a national level.
“The ANC cannot meaningfully transform the economy if its financial engine has a bookkeeping function that is inward-looking, rather than being an instrument for the transformation of the broader South African economy, which has an impact on the organisation’s own financial health. To transform South Africa, the ANC, as an institution, must transform and play a more active role in bringing change.”
Masina believes there is a deeper issue pertaining to the limitations of the functions of the treasurer general, as well as the nature of the South African economy.
These two challenges are the foundation to understanding how and why an organisation of its size, and with its history, finds itself dealing with financial challenges.
Masina believes the role and duties of the treasurer general — which include fundraising, bookkeeping and accounting for financial records to both the national executive committee and national conferences — are inadequate for an organisation that governs a country with the nature of structural and economic problems South Africa has.
“The ANC, if it is to make any significant impact on the transformation of the South African economy, must necessarily begin with transforming the office of the treasurer general from a mere bookkeeping function into a fully fledged treasury function, which includes the development of fiscal and macroeconomic policy …
“In this regard, the ANC must be in a position to advise on the type of fiscal policy required, be it contractionary, neutral or expansionary, to respond to problems at a specific space and time.
“This would not be a blurring of the line between party and state, as the party would not be involving itself in the running of government, but rather informing its policy direction, which is already the basis on which
the party campaigns for elections,” Masina says.
The outspoken leader, who holds a master’s with specialisation in entrepreneurship from the University of Pretoria, added that the treasury office in the ANC must also be active in monitoring and evaluating the private sector’s responsibility to implement government policy, as informed by ANC resolutions.
Masina argues that the private sector is unaccountable, even to the government, save for meeting its tax obligations. Nothing compels it to participate in building a developmental state. This explains why the sector regards social responsibility as charity or “something voluntary”.
“No developmental state functions without the private sector working closely with the government and, by extension, the governing party that informs government policy. The ANC must be in a position to participate in the work of strategic industries that interact with the government.”
Andile Lungisa
Lungisa contends the treasurer general position is the toughest in the top six, given the public’s perception of the ANC and the economic situation in the country.
The former youth league deputy president acknowledges staff members want their salaries and benefits paid on time. He adds the treasurer general must recalibrate and motivate staff so they have confidence in the ANC, both as an employer and vehicle of social transformation.
“Fundraising must be centralised in the mother body [rather than] fragmented, so we can prioritise spend and allocation in a manner that enables a synchronised approach to the work of the movement … We have not implemented our economic policies; the ANC has been timid on this score and we hope to change this.
“There is no way that our country can be stable as long as the economy is owned by a white minority at the exclusion of the majority.”
Pule Mabe
Mabe believes the current economic climate is conducive to a party debate about having two treasurer general positions — one responsible for policy and the other, preferably a deputy, responsible for fundraising and operations.
“In the current form, the treasurer general has to preside over all these functions, look into public policy both in the economic and financial sector space and fundraising strategies and operations. This can be overburdening.
“As part of renewing the ANC, we will also have to renew how we conduct ourselves in the funding space. It is very possible.”
Mabe, who has a master’s degree in business leadership from the University of South Africa, says the only way to empower treasurers in provinces and regions is to ensure there is one, seamless funding approach anchored on achieving what is best for the ANC.
The disbursement of financial resources at all levels should be done in a way that allows for transparency and accountability. Donors, both internal and external, feel much better when they know there is accountability, he said.
Mabe concedes that regaining the trust of the ANC staff would require ongoing communication.
“It hasn’t been an easy period for the sitting treasurer general of our movement due to a number of challenges, including our ailing economy, as well as our depleted donor network, either through the current Political Party Funding Act or business just being unable to carry out social actions like funding political parties.
“We need everyone to be part of the effort, including our staff, to reshape the funding of the ANC. We must all be good ambassadors of the movement.”
Mabe says creating a more conducive donor environment might also require the altering of public policy to allow more room for political parties to mobilise resources from the public and private sector.
“The flexibility of public policy is critical but, equally, the movement needs to rethink, modernise and remodel its approach on both its funding and operations.
“For instance, some of the activities we conduct through our own supplychain methods can be in-sourced and some of the internal capacity of the ANC can actually be commercialised to be income-generating.
“With its membership network, the movement can engineer income interventions to be able to sustain and fund its own programmes, placing less reliance on external sources of funding.”
There are also growing murmurs that Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has shown interest in the position.