How does AfriForum fund its fight for narrow agenda?

Every right-thinking South African ought to be curious about AfriForum's financial backing, given the millions of rands it must need to embark on the numerous high-profile legal challenges it has undertaken.

It is, after all, a non-profit organisation which describes itself as a civil-rights movement with a particular focus on protecting minority rights.

The mention of minorities conjures up images of groups that are not politically dominant in a society. These would include whites, gays, the disabled and some religious groups, but we know that this organisation's campaigns have sought to protect the rights of a single race only.

Not so, according to AfriForum's deputy CEO, Ernst Roets.

When I had a discussion with him this week, he mentioned that they had also undertaken campaigns on behalf of other race groups. Just last week, he said, they intervened in the case of a "coloured" woman who had been raped and the police were dragging their feet on the matter.

In another - involving teenager Johan Nel, who went on a racist shooting spree in 2008 in which four people died, including a baby shot dead in her mother's arms - Roets said they had condemned the incident and sent condolences to the victims' families. They also attended the funerals, he said.

I can't imagine that the response would have been as muted had Nel had a darker skin. I imagine that this self-appointed protector of Afrikaner rights would have hauled the shooter through the courts, including perhaps an appearance at the United Nations if it meant proving they were under threat from blacks. But that is perhaps a discussion for another day.

For now, all I wanted to know was how this group made its money.

There will be those who question the basis of my curiosity.

In answer to your question, let me nudge your memory to a few years back. Remember the Native Club, conceived some years ago by a group of black intellectuals as a think-tank to promote black identity? Its goals included: eradicating apartheid and the colonial mind set which promoted one group as superior while others were inferior; enhancing the self-affirmation of South African people; and protecting and promoting indigenous languages, cultures and traditions.

It sought to assert values which had been eroded by the policy of apartheid.

It had hardly been formally launched when it was met with ridicule and curious questions about its true backers and motivation. What defined a native? Who are these intellectuals and who do they serve? Who funds it?

It could not withstand the scrutiny and, within months, it had died.

AfriForum has not met a similar fate. It has been allowed to operate with impunity and to represent its members in varied litigation with the sole intention of asserting its narrow agenda. I say narrow because it has not cared much for the rights of other minorities.

Through its legal might, it has taken this government to court and won. Its recent victory was in the hate-speech case against ANC Youth League president Julius Malema.

So how is AfriForum's legal might being paid for?

"AfriForum is funded exclusively by members, who make monthly payments into our account," Roets explained.

Their website puts this monthly contribution at R30, R50 or R100.

Membership, Roets said, was at 30000. I requested a financial report, but was referred to the South African Revenue Service and the now defunct Companies and Intellectual Property Commission, so I couldn't confirm these figures.

Although founded by trade union Solidarity and funded by it in the early years, AfriForum is now financially independent of its mother body.

With litigation costs of some of these high-profile cases said to run into millions of rands, AfriForum would need to rake in a lot of money.

The other option would be if its legal counsel worked pro bono and charged when costs were awarded in its favour.

But perhaps the answer to my curiosity lies in this aside by Roets: "On an exceptional basis, we sometimes receive funding from private individuals or constituencies for particular projects."

Who are these people and businesses, and how much do they donate? In the absence of a financial report, these questions couldn't be answered in time for today's column. I will be turning to the Promotion of Access to Information Act, through which AfriForum could be forced to reveal this information.

I suspect there are many like me who are simply dying to know.