Political party funding: Four parties declare second-highest donations to date

Although only four political parties made their funding declarations during the first quarter of the current fiscal year, these were the second-highest donations to date.

This was revealed by the Electoral Commission in its First Quarter Disclosure Report for the 2023/24 Financial Year covering the period of 1 April 2023 to 30 June 2023.

It is the ninth report since the Party Funding Act came into operation.

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According to the report, four political parties made funding declarations during the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

“The value of donations is significantly higher for the reporting period in comparison to previous quarters. Pertinently, the value of declared donations is the second-highest of the nine reported to date,” it said.

“This is the second-largest amount declared, out of nine, since the implementation of the Party Funding Act. The highest was R 60.2 million declared in the second quarter of the previous financial year.”

Declarations

The total amount declared by the African National Congress (ANC), ActionSA, Build One South Africa (BOSA) and Democratic Alliance (DA) was R58.365,321.

This amount includes a late donation declaration of R1.3 million, which consists of three separate donations received by BOSA during the third and fourth quarters of the previous financial year.

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The DA declared the highest donation of R22.901,161, while the second-highest declaration of R20 million was made by the ANC.

ActionSA made the third-highest declaration of R12.164,160.00.

Build One SA made a declaration of R2 million, plus a late declaration of R 1 300 000.

Donors

The bulk of the DA’s donation was received from Fynbos Ekwiteit (Pty) Ltd (R15 million).

“The entity has over the last two financial years made significant donations to the same party,” reads the report.

DA’s two other significant donations were received from Main Street 1564 at R5 million and Mr G Ryan at R2 million.

Two-thirds of the ANC’s donations were received from Batho Batho Trust at R15 million and the remainder was received from Chancellor House Trust at R5 million.

Batho Batho Trust donated R15 million to the ANC in the third quarter of the previous financial year.

“Both these entities are regular donors to the party.”

ActionSA’s largest (60%) donation was received from Victoria Freudenheim at R7.2 million, who has previously made a significant donation to the same party.

READ: ‘R100K five years ago not same amount today: Changes to party funding act

Two other large donations of R2 million each were received from the Solomon David Group (Pty) Ltd. The other came from party leader Herman Mashaba, made in two tranches.

Style Eyes of California (Pty) Ltd, another regular donor to the party, made a donation of R700,000 during the reporting quarter.

Build One SA only declared R2 million from Mr Martin Paul Moshal, in addition to the late declaration of R1.3 million.

The late donation was received from Hlumelo Biko (R200,000), Robert B Hersov (R100,000) and RTH Investments (Pty) Ltd (R1.000,000).

Hersov joined the DA march in January to the ANC’s head office, the Albert Luthuli House, to protest against the load shedding crisis.

Addressing the crowd, Hersov labelled the ANC and President Cyril Ramaphosa as a disgrace to South Africa, saying the governing party needs to “voetsek”.

ALSO READ: ‘Biggest disgrace on the continent’: SA billionaire Rob Hersov says ANC must ‘voetsek!’

“[I urge] on all South Africans to stand together and rid this country of the biggest disgrace on the African continent, ANC and Luthuli House voetsek!”

Foreign donations

Only one foreign donation of R221,161 was declared by the DA from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF).

“It was made towards the cost of several training workshops for members of the DA, including the party’s youth and women organisations. The specified programmes are DA Youth Cape Metro Training; DA Fundraising Training Workshop; Strategic Planning for Political Parties Training; and Empowering Women in Politics – A Leadership Workout Training. It is compliant with the requirements for foreign donations,” reads the report.