DA, ANC, ActionSA only parties to receive donations in Q1

CAPE TOWN - It’s been a bleak funding season for political parties in the first quarter of this financial year, with only three parties receiving donations.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is by far the largest beneficiary, followed by the African National Congress (ANC) and ActionSA leader, Herman Mashaba, propping up his own party.

In total, forty million rand in funding was reported to the Electoral Commission (IEC), which says it expects funding to increase as the local government election draws nearer.

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The R40.4 million disclosed in this quarter is more than double the amount reported in the last two quarters of the previous financial year.

The lion’s share of the money of more than R32 million has been donated to the DA by 13 donors, comprising institutional, international and individual donors.

Aregular benefactor, Fynbos Kapitaal, a company linked to Capitec Bank founder, Michiel le Roux, made the most substantial donation of R15 million and a further R10 million from another of his companies, Fynbos Ekwiteit.

The party again received a generous training and skills in-kind donation worth more than a million rand from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

Smaller donations came from a range of investment companies and individuals, including one of its MPs, Mark Burke, who donated R132,000.

The ANC again tapped into its Chancellor House Investment Fund, drawing down R7.6 million - its only donation.

ActionSA leader, Herman Mashaba, made the party’s single donation of R520,000.

The Multi-Party Democracy Fund only received one donation of R250,000 from Discovery Central Services, the medical scheme and bank’s tech arm.

Earlier in August, the president doubled the annual limit for private donationsto R30 million, while the disclosure threshold was set at R200,000.