One insider alleged the Oscar Mabuyane grouping is hoping that the ANC will allow the affected branches to vote during the conference to boost their numbers.
The Eastern Cape government owes more than R2.2-billion to government suppliers, Premier Oscar Mabuyane admitted last month, with the provincial treasury not having paid more than 12 500 invoices to small businesses and other government suppliers.
This is crippling many businesses. The Public Service Commission (PSC) has identified similar problems in other provinces, including Gauteng, where 1 677 invoices are unpaid, while the North West province has not paid more than 5 500.
In 2019, the Eastern Cape government launched an online invoice tracking system that was meant to help ease the backlog of invoices. The Have-I-Been-Paid online system was supposed to ensure that suppliers were paid within thirty days, as per the national treasury’s stipulation.
But this has not happened, and many unpaid businesses are close to bankruptcy, having to let workers go and in the worst cases closing for good.
Asanda Nombe, a 37-year-old entrepreneur from East London, says she has not been paid after providing supplies for an event hosted by the Eastern Cape department of health in the Buffalo City metro in May. Nombe, who hires out tents, chairs, mobile freezers and speakers, says is still owed R16 000 and has been repeatedly told by officials that she is in a queue with a backlog of other invoices.
“It is really frustrating, because I have about five people working for me, even though most of the time it is temporary,” she said.
“I have three kids that I am supporting and paying their school fees through this business. I am feeling so much pressure. The empty promises from the department have been frustrating. The Covid-19 pandemic has also killed us in the events space, business is just too quiet.”
The PSC has been vocal about its concerns around the non-payment of suppliers.
“It is so cruel, especially at a time where many small businesses are also struggling to make ends meet because of the Covid-19 pandemic,” its commissioner Michael Seloane told the Mail & Guardian.
“Even right now we are engaging with the national treasury to find solutions … This incompetence is against the government’s attempts to create more employment and business opportunities,” he added, attributing the problem in large part to a lack of consequence management in government departments.
The PSC supports the inclusion of payment of suppliers in the performance agreements of accounting officers and others responsible for financial management in government departments.
“I really hope the intervention of the commission can help us as soon as possible. It seems like no one knows how we feel as small businesses,” said Nombe.
Another small business owner, Anele Lokwe, has been given the runaround by the Eastern Cape treasury office.
“They have been playing hide-and-seek with me since January this year. No one is willing to take responsibility to process my payment. I have been enquiring countless times. It is actually tiring now. This is very cruel of our government,” Lokwe said.
“Their employees and heads of the government departments enjoy their salaries every month end while we are left to suffer. I don’t know how we must survive with our employees and also with our children. I have actually given up enquiring about the money, and will look at doing business elsewhere or consider having a pay-first rule for all clients.”
The national treasury prescribes that government supplier invoices should be paid within 30 days and departments need to submit 30 days’ exception reports to the relevant treasuries by the seventh day of each month with information on the preceding month.
Despite the problems in securing payments, small businesses are tempted to deal with the government because it is tough to secure contracts in the private sector.
The Eastern Cape department of health and treasury had not responded to queries on Nombe and Lokwe’s assertions by print deadline.
Sibongile Mawu [not her real name], who runs a catering business in Qonce, is yet another victim of government non-payment who opted to conceal her identity out of fear of being denied work in future.
“I have been working with the Bisho legislature in a number of events supplying food for certain events. It has been a roller-coaster at times but I can’t stop working with them because business from the private sector is very scarce here,” she said.
“They owe me over R12 000 for work I did in March. Every time I inquire about the payment, I am referred to a new person. No one is accounting for it.
“I have now even resorted to taking a break from the business because the Covid-19 pandemic has also made things worse for us. I employed two people who assisted me, so they have also lost work. Their functions have also disappeared now. I am trying to get myself into the job market again,” she said.
The Black Business Forum has been taking the provincial government to task and trying to ensure that suppliers get paid on time, chief executive Ace Ncobo said.
“We have been and are still engaging with provincial senior administrators to say this cannot continue happening,” Ncobo said. “One strategy that will help the province defeat this habit is the application of thorough consequence management within these respective departments. This simply means that certain people are not doing their jobs properly.”
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