Electoral Commission Issues Party Funding 3rd Quarter Disclosure Report for the 2022_23 Financial Year

  Published: Feb 28, 2023

In keeping with the legislative requirements on the publication of political party donation disclosures, the Electoral Commission presents herewith disclosure report for the Third Quarter of 2022/23 Financial Year.

DECLARED DONATIONS

A total of five political parties have declared donations amounting to R 40 050 925.54 during the third quarter of the 2022/23 Financial Year. The five parties and the donations received are as follows:

• ActionSA (ActionSA): R 4 680 000.00

• African National Congress (ANC) : R 32 000 000.00

• Democratic Alliance (DA): R 2 921 325.54

• Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF): R 202 600.00

• Patriotic Alliance (PA): R 247 000.0

ActionSA’s donations were received from three different donors, two of whom are regular donors to the party, namely; Martin Moshal (R3,5 million) and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) NPC (R180 000). The third donor was an entity known as African Equity Corporation (Pty) Ltd, with a donation of R1 million.

The ANC also received donations from three entities, namely; Batho Batho Trust (R 15 million), Naspers Limited (R 2 million) and United Manganese of Kalahari (UMK) (R 15 million). Both Batho Batho Trust and UMK have in the previous financial year made significant donations to the party. 

With regard to the DA, donations were received from four different entities, namely; Fynbos Trust (R 271 000), Ms. Karen Cramer (R 250 000), Naspers Limited (R 2 million) and Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) (R 400 325.54). Save for Ms. Karen Cramer, the three other entities have also made significant donations to the party previously.

For EFF and the Patriotic Alliance (PA), donations were received from a single donor each. EFF’s donation (R 202 600) was received from an entity known as Car Junction, while the PA’s donation (R 247 000) was received from one of the national party leaders, Mr. Kenny Kunene.

ActionSA and Patriotic Alliance (PA) are unrepresented political parties, that is, they currently do not have representation in either one of the nine provincial legislatures or the national parliament. These two parties have from time to time declared significant donations received.

DONATIONS-IN-KIND

Among the five political parties that have declared donations, four had declared donations in kind to the value of R 30 782 925.54. The largest of these in-kind donations was declared by the ANC at R 30 000 000. The balance was made up of donations to ActionSA (R 180 000.00), the DA (R 400 325.54) and EFF (R 202 600.00).

ActionSA’s in-kind donation was received from KAS, a foreign entity and political foundation that is closely associated with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU). The in-kind donation was in the form of training and skills development for party members.

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 SARS on behalf of the party, whereas 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. These types of payments to third parties are classified as in-kind donations in terms of the Act. Both the donations do not exceed the prescribed annual threshold. 

DA’s total in-kind donation is from FNF, a foreign entity, which has up to now donated to the party every quarter. The in-kind donation, valued at R 400 325.54, was in the form of training and skills development for party members. This covered Seminars on Communication: Strategy & Skills; Promoting Entrepreneurship and Open Markets and Coalition Building and Strategic Partnership, among others.

All of the EFF’s declared donation of R 202 600 was in-kind donation received from a donor called Car Junction. The donation was in the form of party branded T-shirts and caps.

FOREIGN DONATION

Only ActionSA and DA declared foreign donations and all of them were compliant with the legislation, in that they were below the R5 million limit per donor per party per annum. Foreign donations were also utilized for prescribed purposes, namely, skills development, research and policy development.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MULTI-PARTY DEMOCRACY FUND (MPDF)

No contributions were made to the Multi-Party Democracy Fund (MPDF) during the third quarter.  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.  

OBSERVATIONS

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 ActionSA, which has during this particular quarter received donations that are bigger than donations received by some of the represented parties. 

On the MPDF front, the Commission wishes for more contributions in order 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. 

CONCLUSION

The 2021-2022 Party Funding Annual Report was tabled in the National Assembly at the end of January 2023. This is in line with the requirements of the Act. The Commission will, in due course, issue a comprehensive statement on the state of party funding in the country as at the end of the last financial year.

Naturally, this will include information on the audited annual financial statements of registered political parties and the extent of compliance with the Act during its first year of implementation.   

Statement issued by the IEC, 28 February 2023