The African National Congress (ANC) has reached an out-of-court settlement with Ezulweni Investment over its R102 million debt for 2019 election campaign material.
“The African National Congress confirms that it has settled out of court with Ezulweni Investments,” it confirmed in a statement on Friday.
The ANC said the matter was resolved in the best interest of both parties.
This comes after Ezulweni threatened and attempted to seize assets at the ANC’s headquarters, Luthuli House, earlier in December. This was in response to the party’s failure to pay the debt as ordered by the court.
The two parties have been locked in a bitter four-year legal feud, with Ezulweni claiming that the ANC owed them about R102 million for their branded goods, such as banners and posters it ordered and received during the 2019 electioneering campaign.
The ANC’s national spokesperson, Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri told IOL that they would not discuss the details of the agreement.
Initially, the ANC’s secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula denied any involvement with Ezulweni during the campaign, but later said that the company had bribed two ANC staffers in a "fraudulent" deal.
He asserted that there was no way he would not have seen such a deal worth millions for only posters and banners.
However, Ezulweni paused its liquidation proceedings after ANC loyalists reportedly approached them intending to settle the dispute.
On December 12, it was reported that the two parties had entered into settlement negotiations over the amount owed to the company.
IOL Politics