ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile seeks to revive a nearly decade-long debate in the party about the role of money in its internal campaign financing by allowing members to openly fundraise for leadership campaigns under strict regulations.
Mashatile has raised the issue two years before the ANC’s 2027 conference, where he is expected to contest to be elected as Ramaphosa’s successor.
The ANC has made it clear that it would not allow any discussions about the succession debate, but Mashatile believes this is one of the issues that has to be concluded before the campaign season starts.
He told Business Day’s sister publication, Sunday Times, that “resources and money play a very big role in politics”, pointing to national and municipal elections where smaller political formations are unable to field candidates because they cannot meet the financial thresholds set by the Electoral Commission.
Mashatile delivered the remarks in an interview on the sidelines of the ANC’s national general council (NGC), where his performance and that of the cohort of leaders elected at the 2022 national conference are being assessed.
He said that although the NGC was unlikely to make a decision on allowing the use of money on internal campaigns, it was a discussion that could no longer be avoided.
Contemporary politics across the world goes hand-in-hand with materialism, Mashatile insisted. He said the party had been thrust into “real politic”, where the discussion of money cannot be avoided.
“We were saying in the ANC, and I think that will come soon, that open it up, make it transparent, don’t fight it. Don’t fight the use of money, make it transparent,” said Mashatile.
“Just say ‘you want to contest to be secretary-general of the ANC? Let’s see who’s your funder’, because we will see people wearing t-shirts with your name. Where do you get the money? Because inevitably, those who are contesting have to transport their supporters and have to get material, so what the ANC must do is to say what are the rules.”
The use of money for campaigning was first raised by the ANC’s electoral committee led by former deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe ahead of the 2022 ANC conference.
Motlanthe’s committee came up with rules to guide how contenders can campaign, which included allowing those contesting for top six, now seven, positions to use their money to arrange public debates.
The electoral committee had also put out a set of rules that allowed those contesting for NEC positions to use money in their campaign under tight restrictions, such as paying for venues.
The Motlanthe rules came as a direct response to the controversy that followed the 2017 conference where President Cyril Ramaphosa’s campaign came under scrutiny, after leaked financial statements of the CR17 campaign showed that they raised millions of rand for it.
“[The ANC electoral Committee] said we want to know the budget of those who are contesting, their account details, so that we know where this comrade is getting funding from so that we avoid a situation of corruption where people are saying ‘maybe they are taking money from irregular tenders’. So open it up,” said Mashatile.
“If you say use of money is a problem, yet please go and campaign, you are contradicting yourself because as soon as people go and campaign, the issue of money kicks in. The supporters are coming; we must book hotels, they must eat, there’s transportation, there are t-shirts and all that. So in conclusion I want to say let’s have rules of campaigning and make it transparent.”
He said the use of money was all but one of the many tenets of deciding ANC leadership, which includes taking time to properly assess the qualities of those who are contesting.
“Of course, you can’t just say, ‘Let’s all campaign,’ but we don’t know where this one comes from. So that is going to be part of it: who are you, what do you stand for, especially in the context of ANC policy and programmes and its history and ethics and integrity; all that is going to count,” he said.
