ActionSA wants funding sources for ANC’s Ezulweni debt made public

ActionSA wants the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to investigate how the ANC will pay its R102m settlement to Ezulweni Investments using the Party Funding Act in its probe.

The party has written to the IEC chief executive for party funding seeking an investigation, ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont said on Tuesday. 

This follows the end of a bitter four-year legal dispute last month between the ANC and Ezulweni over a debt for services rendered during the 2019 election campaign. The deal and funding sources remain secret. 

Beaumont said the move by the party would ensure South Africans learn how the debt was settled and whether it was settled in terms of a lawful arrangement.

“The revelations of the state capture inquiry, which paved the way for the Party Funding Act, revealed in great detail how the ANC funded its activities through its donors receiving tenders,” he said.

“The notion that the settlement of its R102m debt should be accepted at face value is offensive to a country that suffers under the impact of decades of greed and corruption.”

In its argument ActionSA cited provisions of the Party Funding Act, including: 

• Any discount agreed to by Ezulweni Investments on the R102m cannot legally exceed the R15m donation limit;
• Any payments made by ANC donors to Ezulweni Investments would constitute donations in kind to the ANC; and
• Any payments made to Ezulweni by any individual ANC donor cannot exceed R15m and would require no less than seven donors to legally settle the debt.

“It is also necessary to understand which donors have settled the debt and whether those donors or Ezulweni Investments will benefit from future business with the state,” Beaumont said.

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