By Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Insider
The African National Congress (ANC) faces scrutiny from the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) regarding donations that accumulated to R15.27 million as these disclosures had failed to meet political funding requirements, as parties are fundraising for the upcoming 4 November elections.
The funding disclosures give some transparency into who is funding the political parties ahead of the 2026 Local Government elections and this creates a window for voters to be aware of who is funding the parties that they vote for.
Four parties had declared a combined R116.8 million in the first quarter of the 2026/27 financial year. The IEC, which has expressed the donations which include R15 million from the Batho Batho Trust and R270,000 from Captrust Investment (Pty) Ltd was not included in the R116.8 million.
The commission had recognised several compliance matters in regards to the donations received by the ANC. It specified that submissions made by the ANC and donors had failed to meet the standard requirements of the Political Funding Act.
Among the discrepancies was failure to submit the required dual disclosure, failures by the donor and the recipients to submit required declarations, failure to provide proof of the underlying transaction, late submission and missing documentation.
The IEC has stated that they have disclosed this matter regarding the ANC for the sake of transparency while the regulatory processes were still being pursued.
“The Electoral Commission emphasises that the publication of these matters should not be construed as a finding that the underlying donations are unlawful” said the IEC as they aimed to clarify the reason for the disclosures.
“Rather the issue at this stage concerns compliance with the statutory disclosure and verification requirements applicable to political funding,” said the Commission.
These disclosures also raise questions about the alternative routes of accumulating funding such as Multi-Party Democracy Fund (MPDF) which allows private donors to support the represented political parties, as this could affect the policies and values of the party depending on who is funding the parties.
The IEC has separately flagged a number of donations received by the ANC which include an in-kind donation of R501,230.29 from Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, a R10 million donation from Botho Botho Commercial Enterprises, R500,000 from Valumax Projects and R15 Million donations from the Batho Batho Trust.
The Democratic Alliance accounted for approximately 89% of the total as they have declared R104.03 million.
ActionSA have declared R5.5 million, The Labour Party of South Africa R5 Million, and RISE Mzansi have declared R2.24 million.
The largest donations made to DA was made by Fynbos Ekwiteit as they donated R30 million and R25 million from Fynbos Kapitaal. The DA also declared R10 million from D Barnes, and received R5 million each from R Slack Diamond, J Slack Jell, M Moshal, and Lombard Consolidated.
ActionSA declared R5.5 million as they received from Martin Moshal, and R500,000 from Siyaya Free To Air TV, however the IEC flagged a compliance matter which had involved the Siyaya donation.
Even though ActionSA has submitted their declaration, the donor declaration remains outstanding. The IEC had expressed that they will keep a watchful eye over high-value donations, late declarations and anomalies between donor and party disclosures.