Parks Tau, the embattled trade, industry & competition minister, has done SA a huge favour by disclosing why he rejected Batho Batho Trust, the ANC benefactor, as the preferred bidder to run the lucrative national lottery. For this, he will probably be roasted by his party.
Last week, this newspaper reported why Tau rejected the bid by Ringeta, which was preferred by the bid evaluation adjudication processes. He then disclosed the reasons in court papers.
Of his many reasons, which shine an unflattering light on the ANC, are that Batho Batho donates money to the ANC and that one of its trustees, Sibongiseni Dhlomo, a former deputy health minister and an ANC MP, is a board member. He had other reasons too, including the merits of the bid.
There is nothing wrong with funding political parties. It deepens our democracy. Taxpayers alone cannot be reasonably expected to fund all political parties. The private sector has a role to play. Publicly listed companies fund parties as allowed by legislation. Such funds are disclosed by companies in their annual financial statements, as well as parties, in terms of the law.
However, Batho Batho, which owns about 51% of Thebe Investment Corp, is a trust and not listed. Neither is Thebe. Therefore, they have no disclosure requirements.
The trust was set up in the 1990s by Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu. For years, it has donated exclusively to the ANC, unlike other companies. While it has the right to donate to the ANC, that cannot be construed as being in support of democracy. Rather, this is in support of one party.
That the ANC happens to be the largest party in the government of national unity makes the conflict of interest even more obvious. It boggles the mind that such an obvious conflict was missed by evaluators and adjudicators during the protracted lottery tender assessment.
It’s troubling that Ringeta submitted the bid despite the clear prescriptions of the law about political office bearers.
The ANC has run out of patronage. Last year, it mustered just 40% of the votes, forcing it to invite other parties into the government of national unity. With this dip in support and scrutiny on party political funding, it has also lost its power to attract funders.
This is a bad time to face such challenges, with local government elections due next year. Without renewal, the party needs some other magic. And funding might be its last card to play. Every rand counts.
Tau might be in trouble with his party, but he did the right thing.
Dhlomo has claimed that as a trustee he has no beneficial interest in the trust. He may be right, but that is not the only conflict. As Tau pointed out, Dhlomo is an MP and therefore a political officeholder. That the trust is an ANC benefactor worsens the conflict of interest.
There are many lessons to be learnt here. It’s troubling that Ringeta submitted the bid despite the clear prescriptions of the law about political office bearers. The trust ought to have sought legal opinion on Dhlomo’s continued participation as a trustee in light of his association with the trust and his role as an MP. It’s hard to think that such an opinion would have missed a closer reading of the law and the obvious conflict.
Dhlomo is a medical doctor, not a lawyer. It remains unclear how much Dhlomo contributes to the ANC, if at all.
Aspersions will be cast, too, on Sizekhaya, the preferred bidder to run the lottery. It also has issues, including its association with other ANC characters such as businessmen Moses Tembe and Sandile Zungu, an ANC member and one-time aspirant party leader.
Hopefully, Tau’s other cabinet colleagues, including those from other parties, will take a leaf out of his book.
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