Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande. Picture: Gallo Images
With the cash-strapped ANC having launched fundraising initiatives to survive through its toughest financial phase – struggling to pay staff salaries – the SA Communist Party (SACP) has called for adequate funding for the sustainability of political parties, which it said was at the heart of our democracy.
Initiatives have included a crowdfunding campaign coordinated by Sipho Mbele of the party’s business arm Progressive Business Forum, which national spokesperson Pule Mabe yesterday said was a new strategy – responsive to the Political Party Funding Act requirements.
With the Act requiring the declaration of all donations of R100,000 and above, Mabe said the ANC would declare all donations to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).
He said ANC crowdfunding came into effect on 12 August to encourage party members and supporters “to make a contribution into a centralised and single account”.
Added Mabe: “It is aimed at mobilising ANC members and supporters to participate in funding ANC programmes and activities. We are encouraged by the initial response and we hope to continue to grow participation.
“Since the media has reported about the cashflow difficulties experienced by the movement, the treasurer-general has been inundated by members and supporters who want to lend a helping hand.”
The ANC used social media to publicise the Nedbank account and Mbele’s contact details.
With the IEC this week expected to release its quarterly report on political party funding, SACP general secretary Dr Blade Nzimande said political parties were under-resourced.
Responding to a question from The Citizen on the state of the ANC finances ahead of local government polls, Nzimande, who addressed a post-SACP central committee media briefing, said the governing party was not alone in facing a cash crunch.
“We are concerned about the financial situation of the ANC, which is not only facing the party. The SACP is faced with the same challenge and I’m sure many other political parties.
“Unlike our detractors, we don’t celebrate the fact that the ANC has got financial challenges, because adequate funding and sustainability of political parties is at the heart of our democracy.
“It is important that political parties are adequately resourced. The SACP has been calling for the revision of levels of support given to political parties, because if they battle, that becomes a threat to our own democracy.”
Nzimande said Covid worsened the financial challenge, “because many activities we were able to embark upon as political parties, like the ANC’s fundraising and engaging, have been quite affected”.
He added: “It is something the country should be concerned about rather than celebrating.”
Issues discussed by the SACP central committee – the highest decision-making body between congresses – included:
On interventions to address unemployment and poverty levels, Nzimande said the SACP proposed a universal income grant – which required “a rapid emergency response”.
Nzimande said the SACP joins “a wide array of trade union and social movement forces” in calling for the introduction of a universal basic income grant at a reasonable level.
“It needs to be universal to avoid excessive administrative costs. [The] grant can, and will, act as an economic stimulus – not least for the millions of South Africans working in the informal and SMME sectors that have been most severely impacted by the Covid pandemic,” he said.
“The unemployed and underemployed poor, who will be the major beneficiaries of a universal basic income grant, are precisely those who will spend in these sectors – on basic food and other necessities.”
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