Declare all party funding, Cosatu demands

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is demanding that all donations to political parties must be declared and not just those over R100,000.

The threshold was seen as a loophole for unscrupulous politicians to continue to accept gifts, even if these were a form of bribery, it said.

Cosatu’s parliamentary coordinator Matthew Parks said people were right to be worried about this, which showed the deterioration in leadership across all political party lines. He said it was necessary to hold political parties accountable for the donations they received.

He was reacting to allegations that Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane accepted use of a hired car paid for by former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste during the 2016 elections.

“Cosatu further urges parliament to now show some political courage and amend the fatally weak Political Party Funding Act. The R100,000 donation threshold must be removed. The Act must be tightened to require elected public representatives to be compelled to disclose all donations, be it in cash or kind,” Parks said.

He accused Maimane and his party of being “puppets and stooges that have been used to prop up the apartheid-inherited capitalist system”.

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“We now know why they have been losing their voice when it comes to fighting private sector corruption. The unethical and corrupt conduct of the private sector is defended and explained away by dishonest leaders so they can keep getting crumbs.

“Jooste was implicated in the collapse of Steinhoff and in the process he destroyed workers’ retirement savings.

“For Maimane to be said to have accepted a gift from Jooste was an endorsement of the nefarious things that Jooste has been shown to have done.”

DA spokesperson Solly Malatsi defended Maimane, saying: “The DA received a donation in the form of the use of a vehicle for a limited period to assist with campaigning.

“The party at no stage took ownership of this vehicle.”

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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