{"id":86956,"date":"2024-03-11T09:47:01","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T09:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/?p=86956"},"modified":"2025-11-17T17:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T17:41:09","slug":"sa-elections-political-parties-biggest-funders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/2024\/03\/11\/sa-elections-political-parties-biggest-funders\/","title":{"rendered":"Elections24: The funders behind SA’s political parties"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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The most recent party donations data is available on our dashboard here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who are the major funders of South Africa’s political parties and who are they funding? We take a look at the individuals and families who are putting a lot of money into, mostly, the official opposition DA or the new and emerging crop of political parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most intriguing is the notoriously secretive Martin Moshal. Durban-born Moshal lives in Sydney and has made his fortune in gambling technology. He was also recently revealed as a shareholder in the UK’s Betway gambling group. Closer to home, he’s the biggest single donor to local political parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Moshal and the Oppenheimers, Africa\u2019s third-richest family, donated R149-million to political parties between April 2021 and December 2023. That’s a third of the R437-million of funding declared to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Democratic Alliance (DA) received 42% of the money donated by the Oppenheimers and Moshal. Four-year-old ActionSA received 41% of the donations, and Mmusi Maimane\u2019s Build One SA received 7%. Rebecca Oppenheimer donated R15-million to Rise Mzansi, which is almost 90% of its declared funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investment companies Fynbos Ekwiteit and Fynbos Kapitaal, which have Capitec founder Michiel le Roux as a director, contributed 15% to the total donations declared. All of their R65-million went to the DA, making up one-third of the party\u2019s total funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Almost half of the DA\u2019s declared R164.3-million is from individual donors, with financial services companies contributing 41% (R66.7-million) to its declared donations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruling party funders<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The African National Congress (ANC) received more than half of its funding from established trusts such as Batho Batho and Chancellor House, and a quarter from mining companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Batho Batho and Chancellor House only donated to the ANC. The two trusts contributed R82.5-million (19%) to the total donations declared to the IEC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With its contribution of R30-million, the United Manganese of Kalahari is one of the ANC\u2019s largest funders. Half of the donation was labelled \u2018in kind\u2019, which is a donation in the form of goods, services or assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Botho Botho Commercial Enterprises, Harmony Gold and African Rainbow Minerals, which together donated R29.3-million, are all companies connected to billionaire Patrice Motsepe. Botho Botho’s R10-million donation went to the ANC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

African Rainbow Minerals and Harmony Gold’s donations were split between the ANC (R5.85-million from each company), the DA (R2.12-million from each), the EFF (R1.1-million from each), the IFP (R344,000 from each) and Freedom Front Plus (R242,000 from each).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two-thirds of the declared funding of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) were from mining companies Harmony Gold and African Rainbow Minerals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In-kind donations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

About 10% of total donations are categorised by the IEC as in-kind donations. The data doesn’t specify exactly what these in-kind donations are but there are a few interesting ones worth pondering: <\/p>\n\n\n\n