Gwen Ramokgopa: ‘Political immaturity’ the reason companies not donating to ANC and other parties

ANC treasurer general Gwen Ramokgopa says the Political Party Funding Act is one reason the party is in a dire financial situation.

Even companies run

Ramokgopa, who was speaking at a media briefing in Johannesburg on Tuesday, attributed this to what she called political immaturity, where companies that donate to parties become a target that hurts their businesses.

“The companies are very reluctant to do that [make donations]. Even companies that are owned

The Act compels political parties to disclose their

The law also prohibits donations from foreign governments and their agencies, foreign persons and entities, organs of state and state-owned enterprises.

Parties are obliged to fully disclose, within three months of the financial year-end, all money received, including funds and membership fees, and how those funds were used.

The Act regulates the public and private funding of political parties with the aim of  establishing transparency and trust between them and the public.

Parties including ActionSA and Economic Freedom Fighters have raised concerns about the Act. The ANC has also been struggling to get enough donations to pay its

In 2023, the ANC had to settle out of court with Ezulwini Investments after the company threatened to attach the party’s assets for non-payment. This would have seen the ANC not being able to contest the 2024 general elections.

The ANC had failed to pay R102 million for the printing and installation of 30 000 banners for its 2019 election campaign. Party president Cyril Ramaphosa had to intervene on the matter for the ANC and Ezulwini to reach an out of court settlement.

On Tuesday, Ramogopa said although the ANC had known that the Act would eventually affect it, the party had not adequately prepared for it.

Asked about the current state of the party’s finances, she said she did not want to get into details, but they were stable. The ANC had been encouraging all progressive companies to contribute to “the second fund” (the Multi-Party Democracy Fund) administered

“The first fund comes from the fiscus; it’s not adequate and the second fund of the IEC is the multi-party fund and a number of companies have started to contribute there instead of individual political parties and that is a better environment for them,” she said.

In July, Joel Bregman, a researcher with civil society organisation My Vote Counts, told the Mail & Guardian that the IEC’s latest funding report showed that in 2022-23 political parties received R342 million of public funding from the treasury through the commission.