The ANC, battling to find solutions to its financial woes, will advocate for radical changes to a law that governs how parties received cash donations.
The Sunday Times this week established that the cash-strapped ANC intends lobbying parties in parliament to support its plans for amendments to the Political Party Funding Act.
The move has brought a stinging rebuke from constitutional development minister Mohammed Valli Moosa, who hailed the passage of the law as an improvement to transparency.
The act has been in law for less than a year following its implementation in April after it had been signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in January.
The new law obliges parties to declare any donation of more than R100,000 to the Electoral Commission (IEC).
It also limits to R15m a year the amount a party can receive from a single donor.
Supporters of the law hailed it a victory for transparency and accountability. But ANC leaders this week said they wanted the two thresholds to be expanded or be scrapped.
They said these limited the ANC’s capacity to function as a party, arguing that the new law had made it difficult to attract donors who until now had preferred to remain anonymous.
The ANC’s coffers have dried up, leading to a failure to pay staff. It also operated on a shoestring budget during this year’s municipal election campaigning.
The ANC is also lobbying finance minister Enoch Godongwana to increase annual allocations to political parties represented in parliament through the IEC, which amounted to R158m in 2020.
ANC national executive committee members Dakota Legoete and Pule Mabe said this week the party would lobby parliament to prioritise changes to law in the new year.
“We are taking it back to parliament for it to be amended. So far it’s not only us as the ANC who say the act must be amended: [it includes] the EFF, DA and other parties. We are all affected,” said Legoete.
“We want to amend it because what we are saying is that let the act not be rigid, but let’s rather bring regulations to control activities of parties.”
Legoete said the ANC wanted both the R100,000 and R15m thresholds done away with.
We don’t need a ceiling of how much donations we get ... we just need to account for the donations, and that’s where regulations come in
— ANC NEC member Dakota Legoete
“We don’t need a ceiling of how much donations we get ... we just need to account for the donations, and that’s where regulations come in,” he said.
“Remove the threshold because even in America there’s nothing like that, even in Britain there’s nothing like that. It was something out of creativity in this country because in SA democracy is the alpha and omega.”
Mabe said the ANC would be liquidating itself if it failed to challenge the act. The ANC needs at least R200m to settle its wage bill and other debts.
"If you introduce new legislations and those legislations, instead of improving on your efficiencies ... become ... barriers on how you operate now, a self respecting political party then ought to say 'Can I go ahead with this?'" Mabe said.
"For instance, if you put a ceiling, which is far lower than what the ANC requires to run its own operation, you now realise if you leave it like that you are self-liquidating."
Valli Moosa, however argued that the current thresholds were "extremely generous" as the Zondo Commission has shown how people can be bribed with as little as a R100 000.
"So if you remove those, in effect you are repealing the law, that is what you are doing, you know when you take the life out of a piece of legislation it's the same thing as repealing the law," he said.
Valli Moosa said it was also untenable for the ANC to seek to change laws in order to resolve its internal problems.
"You can't every time you run into some or other difficulty within the party you want to change the constitutional order, that would not be the right way for us to be building a democracy," he said.
Legoete and Mabe said the party was confident of securing the support of other parties, claiming they were also suffering the effects of the law.
“It has not helped. People may target the ANC because it’s a governing party but what if in the next two elections they are not,” said Legoete.
Asked if they would support the ANC’s plan, DA federal council chair Helen Zille said it was a policy matter that would have to go through “the correct process within the DA”.
Action SA chair Michael Beaumont said it had its concerns about the law. He said the party was worried that the ANC’s proposals were to resolve its own financial difficulties.
“We have a number of concerns. Amendments to the law should be driven by a rational assessment that advances campaigning and transparency. Our concern is that appears to be driven by the ANC’s need to address their own financial predicament,” he said.
The IFP’s Mkhuleko Hlengwa said the party supported the law as it stood and “therefore no amendments are required”.
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