ActionSA has on Tuesday confirmed that it has lodged a legal complaint against the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) as well as the ANC for the commission’s failure to investigate the more than R100 million the ANC allegedly paid to KZN printing company Ezulweni Investments.
Last year, the governing party reached an out-of-court settlement with the company following years of a back and forth legal spat with the ANC.
The company was owed millions for work it did for the ANC during its 2019 election campaign.
In a statement by ActionSA national chairperson, Michael Beaumont, the party accused the commission of flip flopping on its initial commitment to investigate the over R150m Ezulweni debt settlement agreement.
The party further announced new complaints to the IEC against the EFF and MK Party over their lack of financial disclosure over its political funding.
According to the latest figures, the MK Party received just over R400 000 while the EFF declared just over R3.5m to the IEC.
The party said its decision to take these steps arises out of an increasing concern that the Party Funding Act is being rendered meaningless by non-adherence to the provisions of the act.
“To point out just how serious the problem is, the IEC recently took political parties to court (including the ANC) for non-submission of audited financial statements which is the only safeguard against a party not disclosing a donation. The court imposed a fine of R40 000 on these parties, while parties like ActionSA spent double this figure on auditors to achieve a clean audit outcome three years in a row,” Beaumont said.
On the ANC and Ezulweni, Beaumont said the two-line statement issued by the ANC in December 2023 that the party had settled the debt with Ezulweni Investments needs to be investigated.
“A market-related interest from 2019 would have to have been levied, making the likely debt in excess of R150m. The settlement could not legally be discounted by more than R15m. The ANC only had R10m in disclosures in the quarter under question in which the settlement was concluded and had been in financial distress unable to pay salaries for striking workers. Any donor paying an account more than R100k would have to be declared as donation in kind – no such declaration was forthcoming,” he added.
The party has revealed that its efforts to get a progress report on the IEC investigation has not yielded any positive outcomes.
“ActionSA’s efforts to engage the IEC to investigate this matter eventually led to correspondence from the IEC in March 2024 confirming that they were handling the matter in terms of the act and no further communication has been forthcoming. This is despite regular attempts from ActionSA to gain progress reports ahead of the 29 May election in which South Africans had the right to know the full picture of party funding when they voted.
“Yesterday, the IEC’s legal team responded to a letter of demand reversing their earlier position and claiming now that there is no prima facie case to investigate,” he said.
The party says its legal team will now proceed to initiate a two-part legal action which seek to obtain the record of decision from the IEC to assess the rationality of their decision and to challenge the rationality of the decision to decline the investigation.
The Star