The Electoral Commission (IEC) has published the latest record of large donations given to political parties in South Africa, confirming a now well-established trend of routinely disclosing large donations. Only a handful of political parties do.
The latest disclosures cover the first quarter of the second fiscal year in which the law took effect. Only four political parties have reported that he has received donations in excess of R100 000 from a single source in the most recent period: the DA, ANC, ActionSA and Patriotic Alliance.
Of these four, the DA brought in the highest amount of donations in the first quarter, at around R16 million, while the ANC came in second with donations of R10 million. Most of the DA's funding comes from Capitec founder Michel Le Roux, and the ANC is once again heavily beholden to mining tycoon Patrice Motsepe.
and One year of these disclosures It has become clear that as a nation, only the ANC and DA can report large donations on a quarterly basis. Herman Mashaba's ActionSA received an honorable mention for disclosing donations in all but one quarter.
And the rest?
However, on-the-ground information disclosure about the remaining political parties represented in parliament is sparse.
For example, the Economic Freedom Fighters revealed only R3.1 million in donations in five financial reporting periods, the majority of which came from Motsepe just before the 2021 local government elections. EFF is known for its good relationships with wealthy businessmen such as cigarette smuggler Adriano Mazzotti, but his name does not appear anywhere in its funding disclosures.
Freedom Front Plus, which many speculate is raking in Stellenbosch's money, revealed it had donated less than R500,000 in the same period. (The donor in question was once again the fairy godfather of South African political parties, Patrice Motsepe.)
Is this plausible given that these parties and many others were able to conduct large-scale election campaigns (always an expensive undertaking) in the run-up to the 2021 local government polls? ?
Of course, says FF Plus leader Peter Groenewald.
Grunewald said. daily maverick It is perfectly logical that only the ANC and DA can consistently raise large donations.
“It's always been like this. Large donations usually come from companies. The ruling party and the government opposition always end up receiving such large donations because companies see donations as investments.”
Good Party general secretary Brett Herron stressed that lack of disclosure does not mean a lack of transparency or lack of donors. (Goode has so far disclosed about R464,000 in cash and in-kind donations.)
“This means that none of our donations reached our goal.” [R100,000] Threshold for declaring with [that] quarter,” Herron said. daily maverick.
“While we certainly welcome generous benefactors like DA and ActionSA, we continue to be encouraged by smaller donors who provide cash and in-kind support.”
Mr Herron also said that the disclosures, above all else, suggested that the largest political parties were dependent on a worryingly small number of donors.
“For me, this raises some alarm for the DA because, despite decades of attracting donors, the DA has a wide range of donors who have donated more than R100,000. Because there isn't.”
daily maverick sent financial disclosure questions to six political parties that have previously disclosed donations only once or twice: FF Plus, Good, Patriotic Union, African Christian Democratic Party, EFF and IFP.
Only FF Plus and Good answered our questions.
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audited financial statements
But political parties reluctant to discuss funding with journalists are about to face another form of financial scrutiny. For the first time since the introduction of the Political Party Finance Act, political parties will be required to submit audited financial statements to the IEC by the end of September.
These statements should include details of all donations, loans, dues, and income, as well as a list of bank accounts into which this money will be deposited.
“As the end of September approaches, the Commission is receiving, analyzing and preparing to publish the audited financial statements of registered political parties,” the IEC said this week.
“This will be the biggest task yet undertaken by the European Commission since it came into force.” [Political] Party Finance Act April 2021. ”
The IEC has previously indicated that it is conducting training with political parties to enable treasurers to submit financial statements in the required manner.
But along the way, there have been a number of hints that the IEC is preparing for what it diplomatically called “any contingency” in its previous statement, when in reality it is “political parties not cooperating; Others may understand it to mean “I'm lying.” ”.
The IEC is “currently finalizing the appointment of an investigative committee comprised of auditing experts, audit firms, forensic investigators, law firms, etc.,” and the purpose of this committee is to ” “To investigate the issue.'' of deeds.”
crime
Panels like this can probably be busy. Providing false or incomplete information about party funds to the IEC is a criminal offense, punishable by a fine of up to R500,000 and/or two years' imprisonment. If the IEC proves to have enough backbone to pursue questionable cases in the necessary way, there will be quite a lot at stake.
FF Plus says it has no problem complying with all aspects of the law and even intends to support it. Calls by lobby groups My Vote Counts The threshold for reportable donations will be “significantly reduced” from R100,000.
The majority of FF Plus's funding comes from simply the following sources: Representative party fundsaid Grunewald. daily maverick: Funding given to political parties represented in parliament based on the number of seats they win in elections.
Heron said daily maverick Goode's funding similarly comes from “small donors, members, and allowances given to representatives through the IEC and Congress,” he said.
Goode said the current donation declaration system is a “bureaucratic nightmare” that imposes “onerous” obligations on parties.
But Herron argues that the entire political funding framework needs to be overhauled and that the new law is not enough. In particular, he suggests there should be limits on campaign spending.
“The amount of money spent on campaigning is outrageous.
“In 2019, the DA had an election campaign budget of R600 million compared to the ANC’s R1 billion budget. In a country with such high levels of poverty and inequality, this is outrageous. Why would donors give so much money to political parties when we are so overwhelmed with food insecurity and poverty? There is a perversion of priorities.” DM
