Party funding: ‘Broke’ ANC declares R22 million as Cyril digs into his pockets

The ANC’s cash flow problems appear to have improved, albeit via a murky donation from the ANC’s own Investment company Chancellor House.

The ANC had previously complained that they had experienced trouble raising funds, as donors were hesitant having their names linked to specific political parties.

Having their own investment company, which the party set up in 2003 as a funding vehicle, seems to be a convenient way to bypass this hesitance, as can be seen in the latest IEC political party funding report.

According to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), the governing party declared R22,619,969 in funding for the second quarter of 2021.

IEC report

Funds declared

ActionSA declared R16,923,382 and the Democratic Alliance (DA) declared R16,867,007.

The Economic Freedom Fighters were among 502 political parties that did not disclose any donations.

The Political Party Funding Act requires donations of R100,000 and upwards to be disclosed by parties and donors to the IEC.

Last quarter, the ANC declared R10.7 million, while the DA and ActionSA declared R15.9 million and R3.3 million respectively.

ANC donors

This time, President Cyril Ramaphosa donated a total of R366,000 in two instalments to the ANC.

But the party’s biggest donation of R15 million came from Sandton-based business management holding company Chancellor House.

The second-biggest donation of R5 million came from mining magnate Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Minerals, followed by a R1 million contribution from North West-based residential construction consultant business, NEP Consulting.

Private businessman Cedric Muziwakhile Ntombela donated R400,000.

DA donors

The DA’s biggest donor this time around was Durban philanthropist Martin Moshal, who donated a whopping R15 million to the party, the maximum amount allowed per year, by law. Last quarter, he was responsible for ActionSA’s biggest donation of R2.5 million.

Moshal co-founded Entrée Capital and has been described by Crunchbase as a “prolific innovator and entrepreneur”. He also established the Moshal Scholarship Program, which supports more than 900 financially disadvantaged university students in Israel, South Africa and Ukraine.

The DA’s second-largest donation of R1 million came from multinational Naspers.

British politician and former South African businessman, Sir Michael Lawrence Davis, made the third-largest contribution of R300,000.

Davis was also the chief executive and treasurer of the Conservative Party, and the chief executive of Xstrata, an Anglo-Swiss mining company, until its merger with Glencore.

Donations from foreign entities or people like Davis cannot be more than R5 million in a year.

Camps Bay socialite and the wife of an investment banker, Sandy Van Hoogstraten, gave the DA R200,000.

Action SA donors

Moshal tops the list as ActionSA’s biggest funder with a donation of R5 million.

Three members of the Oppenheimer family donated R3.3 million each.

Rebecca Oppenheimer, Victoria Freudenheim, and Jessica Slack, who are the granddaughters of Harry and Bridget Oppenheimer and daughters of Mary Slack, donated a total of nearly R10 million to the new political kid on the block.

JSE-listed investment holding company, AEEI Group, which is also a subsidiary of Sekunjalo Investment Holdings, donated R500,000.

Herman Masahba’s wife Connie, is listed as a director of AEEI.

That donation was matched by Salt Rock-based company Moxitone Investments.

Durban-based clothing company, Style Eyes of California, made two donations – a cash amount of R 200,000 and an in-kind donation of golf shirts to the value of nearly R24,000.

Other parties

• Abantu Integrity Movement (AIM) declared a total of R112,386.04
• African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) declared R235,000.00
• GOOD party declared R122,900.00

“It is important to highlight that the amount of R112,386.04 declared by AIM was for donations received by the party during the first quarter, i.e. between the months of 2 April and June 2021,” said the IEC.

But AIM only declared the donations to the IEC in the second quarter.

Party funding prescripts state that donations received by political parties must be disclosed on a quarterly basis.

In-kind donations

Four political parties have disclosed a total of R780,675.47 in in-kind donations. The disclosures were as follows:

• ActionSA – R498,382.00
• AIM – R112,386.04
• GOOD – R122,900.00
• DA – R 47,007.43

The in-kind donations for ActionSA included items such as donations of 400 corporate golf shirts, consulting services, policy development, provision of books and other marketing material and 950,000 (A5) handout brochures for the party.

For AIM, the in-kind donations included T-shirts, flyers, banners, flags, video material, information technology-related material and gazebos.

GOOD party’s in-kind donation, which was also the only donation declared by the party, consisted of the purchase of a Mazda Drifter BT-50 bakkie.

The in-kind donation for the DA included a service provider payment for party member training which took place between 17–23 June 2021.

This article was originally on 18 November.

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