Despite dwindling public support, S Africa's ruling ANC gets lion's share of political donations

The MPDF aims to sustain multi-party democracy.The performance of the Fund is the clearest indication yet that funders appear to still have a preference for direct donations to political parties, the IEC said.In an effort to obtain more contributions to the Fund, the Commission has begun a process of engaging with a number of high-net worth citizens in order to introduce the MPDF.

Notwithstanding a public outcry over its alleged inability to address corruption within its ranks, the African National Congress (ANC)received the lion's share of political donations reported to the country's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

The latest report of the IEC, covering the third quarter of 2022, showed that only five political parties have declared donations amounting to a total of just over R40 million during this period.

Such donations have to be reported to the IEC under a new legislation.

The growing public dissatisfaction with the party and acknowledgement even within the ANC's ranks that it could lose the general election scheduled for next year, does not appear to have deterred donors.

The ANC got R32 million, far outstripping the second highest recipient of donations, Democratic Alliance (DA), which got R2.9 million. Action SA, which does not yet have any seat in government, received R4.68 million; Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) got R202,600; and the Patriotic Alliance (PA), also currently unrepresented in Parliament, got R247,000, donated to the party by its leader Kenny Kunene.

A number of the donations were in kind by foreign foundations all of which the IEC declared to be compliant with the legislation in that they were below the R5 million limit per donor per party per annum. Foreign donations were also utilised for prescribed purposes, namely, skills development, research and policy development.

The largest single donations were declared by the ANC. The ANC's in-kind donations were from Batho Batho Trust and UMK, valued at R15 million each. The donation from Batho Batho Trust was a payment made to the South African Revenue Services on behalf of the party. The donation from UMK was a payment made on behalf of the party to the Johannesburg Expo Centre for the ANC elective conference of December 2022.

While all donors clearly supported a single party, media giant Naspers Limited appeared to hedge its bets by donation R2 million each to both the ANC and the opposition DA.

The EFF's declared donation of R 202 600 was an in-kind donation received from a donor called Car Junction for party branded T-shirts and caps.

''Represented parties continue to be beneficiaries of bigger donations. However, there are also indications that unrepresented parties themselves are actively raising funds and do receive some significant donations. Case in point is Action SA, which has during this particular quarter received donations that are bigger than donations received by some of the represented parties,'' the IEC said in its report.

The IEC lamented the fact that a Multi-Party Democracy Fund (MPDF) received no contribution during this period. The MPDF aims to sustain multi-party democracy.

''The performance of the Fund is the clearest indication yet that funders appear to still have a preference for direct donations to political parties,'' the IEC said.

''In an effort to obtain more contributions to the Fund, the Commission has begun a process of engaging with a number of high-net worth citizens in order to introduce the MPDF. It is anticipated these planned engagements will yield positive result. Moreover, the increasing activity in the preparations of the 2024 may also provide additional impetus to contribute to the MPDF by these high-net citizens,'' the IEC added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)