ANC issues strict rules on donations ahead of party election

South Africa’s governing party has beefed up its campaign rules on disclosing funding ahead of its elective conference in December where its new leadership will be elected.

This conference held every five years is a crucial event in the African National Congress’ political program as the elected leader will be its presidential candidate in the 2024 national elections and policies voted on will be used to govern the country.

The new rules require those involved in campaigns to keep a clear record of all sources of donations in money or in kind and all campaign spending, the electoral committee chairman and former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe said in a letter distributed to key party office bearers and functionaries on Wednesday.

The ANC has traditionally discouraged its members from campaigning for posts, saying that nominations must come from its branches. But many officials have canvassed for support anyway, leading the party to try and regulate a process that’s been marred by vote-buying. President Cyril Ramaphosa has admitted to spending millions of rand on his successful bid for the ANC leadership in 2017, while denying he had done anything untoward.

The measures also require a full financial record of every campaign to be submitted to the ANC’s electoral committee, the document said. They also allow the committee to demand further details and inspect bank statements of candidates and their assistants and to interview members of campaigning teams, the letter said.

“Failure to disclose and declare the financial records as directed by the electoral committee shall be a serious misconduct,” Motlanthe said. It may lead to those implicated being “subjected to disciplinary action and disqualified from being candidates for the national executive committee positions with possible expulsion from the ANC,” he said.

Pule Mabe, the party’s spokesman and Motlanthe didn’t immediately answer calls to their phone or respond to text messages.