Political funding – Harry O’s grandkids pumping the cash into new parties

Issued by the Electoral Commission

Introduction

The Electoral Commission releases the third quarter Disclosure Report for the financial year 2023/24. The covers the period of 1 October to 31 December 2023. The report is published on the back of proclamation of election date for the 2024 National and Provincial Elections (NPE) by the State President, which will be held on 29 May 2024.

Steady increase in the value of donations declared

There has been a steady increase in the value of donations disclosed for the third quarter, which is in some ways indicative of the heighted fundraising activities by political parties in preparation for the upcoming elections.

A total of seven (7) political parties have made donation declarations during this quarter, and they are:

RiseMzansi–R16744186.00
ActionSA–R13912450.00
African National Congress (ANC) – R10 000 000.00
Build One South Africa (BOSA) – R8 500 000.00
PatrioticAlliance(PA)–R7096380.00
DemocraticAlliance(DA)–R2608009.05
Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) – R191 040.77 1

Total value of donations declared

The total value of donations declared for the third quarter of the 2023/24 financial year is a noteworthy R 59 052 065.82 (fifty-nine million fifty-two thousand sixty-five rand and eighty-two cents).

Who made the donations

Rise Mzansi – R16 744 186.00

Rise Mzansi, which is unrepresented and one of the new political parties, having only registered with the Electoral Commission on 7 September 2023 declared the highest value of donations received during the third quarter at R16 744 186.00. Of the total declared amount, R15 000 000.00 was a monetary donation received from Rebecca Oppenheimer, who has in the past made similar large donations to parties such as the DA and ActionSA. Another monetary donation declared by Rise Mzansi was in the amount of R1 000 000.00 received from an entity named Main Street 1564 (Pty) Ltd. The remainder of the donations declared by the party were two in-kind donations valued at R184 228.00 and R559 958.00, received from InJozi Design CC and Kairos Communication (Pty) Ltd, respectively. In-kind donation by InJozi Design CC was in the form of website development for the party while the Kairos Communication (Pty) Ltd’s in-kind donation was in the form of “printing and flighting of the party’s posters nationwide”.

ActionSA – R13 912 450.00

ActionSA, which declared the second largest donation for the quarter, received their highest monetary donations from the party’s regular donors, Victoria Freudenheim (R7 486 200.00) and Martin Moshal (R5 000 000, made of two separate donations of R3 000 000.00 and R2 000 000.00 during the months of October and November 2023). The balance of the donations was received from entities and individuals named African Equity Corporation (Pty) Ltd with a donation of R1 000 000.00, SHIYAN 80422 (Pty) Ltd with a donation of R150 000.00, Solomon David Group (Pty) Ltd with a donation of R127 750.00 and Alan Beesley with a donation of R148 000.00. All of ActionSA’s declared donations were monetary donations.

African National Congress (ANC) – R10 000 000.00

African National Congress (ANC) made the third highest donation declaration valued at a combined R10 000 000.00. All of the ANC’s declared donations were of monetary nature and were received from Chancellor House Trust. The donations were of R5 000 000.00 each, both received during the month of December 2023.

Build One South Africa (BOSA) – R8 500 000.00

Build One South Africa (BOSA) declared the fourth highest donation received valued at R8 500 000.00, which was all monetary in nature. The party’s highest donation was received from Jessica Bridget Slack Jell, valued at R6 000 000.00, followed by Martin Moshal with a donation of R2000000.00, and lastly, an entity named RTH Investments (Pty) Ltd with a donation of R500 000.00.

All these donors are regular donors to various political parties in South Africa, inclusive of the DA and ActionSA.

Over and above these donations, BOSA previously received and declared a donation of R5 000 000.00 made by Mary Slack, the mother of Jessica Bridget Slack Jell, during the second quarter of the 2023/23 financial year. This was a manual donation declaration submitted through an email as opposed to the Online Party Funding System (OPFS) that is purposefully created for declaration of donations.

Patriotic Alliance (PA) – R7 096 380.00

PA declared monetary donations amounting to R7 096 380.00 from eight different donors. Party leader, Gayton McKenzie, was the party’s highest donor for the quarter with three separate donations of R250 000.00, R2 289 130.00 and R220 000.00 during the months of October, November and December 2023, respectively. These added up to a combined total of R2 759 130.00.

Another party leader, Kenny Kunene, made a total monetary donation of R1 007 250.00 to his party during the same period.
Other donors were RED C2 (Pty) Ltd with a donation of R2 000 000.00 and Downtown Spares CC with a combined donation of R380 000.00 (made of two separate donations R190 000.00 each during the months of October and November 2023).

XMOOR Transport (Pty) Ltd was another donor, also with a donation of R190 000.00. Metrowired (Pty) Ltd made a donation of R380 000.00, XTX Trade (Pty) Ltd also donated R190 000.00 and, lastly, an individual named Rapula Mogaki made a donation of R190 000.00.

The accompanying documents to the donation submitted to the Commission demonstrated that the multiple donations amounting to R190 000 were towards the political party’s gala dinner which was held sometime in November of 2023. Ordinarily, these amounts should not have been declared as donations but rather kept on record for disclosure as “other income” in the audited annual financial statements in terms of section 12(3)(d) of the Act. However, the Commission is publishing these as voluntarily declared by the political party.

Democratic Alliance (DA) – R2 608 009.05

DA’s total donation declaration amount was R2 608 009.05 received in a combination of in-kind and monetary donations from six different donors. The largest donation amount of R1 000 000.00 was received from an entity named Artemis Properties (Pty) Ltd, followed by Beacon Rock Limited with a donation of R999 711.81. Several other donations were received from Joof Alberts Trust valued at R250 000.00, Indawo (Cape) (Pty) Ltd valued at R150 000.00, Mr A Dymond donated R136 500.00 and the regular donor, Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) with a combined in-kind and monetary donation of R71 797.24. FNF’s hybrid donation was towards the cost of Communication Training for DA members.

Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) – R191 040.77

The IFP reported a lone in-kind donation valued at R191 040.77 from Konrad Adenauer Stiftung NPC. The donation was made towards costs related to a training workshop for party members employed in the national, provincial and local spheres of government.

Foreign Donations

Foreign donations for the third quarter were R71 797.24 and R191 040.77 declared by DA and IFP, respectively. For each of these parties, the donations were compliant with the legislation in that they did not exceed the set limit of R5 million per party per financial year and were utilised for purposes sanctioned by the law.

Multi-Party Democracy Fund

During the third quarter, the Multi-Party Democracy Fund received a contribution of R5 000 000.00 (made of two separate amounts of R2 500 000.00) from Standard Bank. The bank is a repeat contributor to the MPDF as it previously did so in the run up to the 2021 Local Government Elections. This contribution has already been distributed to parties.

For the Electoral Commission, this is an indication that there are some in the corporate sector that recognise the role that Corporate South Africa can play to strengthen multi- party democracy in South Africa.
The Commission continues to call on other corporate entities and individual members of the society to take up the challenge and support this good course.