Johannesburg- The DA, which has historically been cash-flush, is struggling to raise funds for its election campaign.
So dire is the situation that the country’s official opposition has been forced to introduce new methods for its public representatives to help its finance department raise money for the polls.
In a memorandum to party leaders last month, the party’s federal finance chairperson, Dion George, and the organisation’s finance director, Stephen Murphy, urged party leaders to use leaflets, among others, in raising cash for the election war chest.
“The federal fundraising team will provide each province with a list of donors that may be called or visited by accredited fundraisers to raise a donation.
[membership level=”1″]
The provinces will use their own discretion as to how they would like to follow these leads for fundraising,” the communiqué reads.
A DA public representative told Sunday World that the party had hit hard times financially since the departure of former leader Mmusi Maimane.
This is despite recent revelations that Mary Slack, the daughter of South African industrialist Harry Oppenheimer, pumped R15-million into DA coffers.
“We don’t have money, we are broke. We have been going through training to raise money. All public representatives have been told to raise money.”
The leader, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said the party was struggling to get new funders because of perceptions that it had of late become an organisation pursuing white interests at the expense of black people.
He said the latest saga surrounding the party’s posters in Phoenix, KwaZulu-Natal, was going to make it harder to approach donors and had thrown the elections campaign into a tailspin. Sunday World understands that the saga around election posters – which saw the party being accused of celebrating Indian community members who killed innocent black people during the unrest in Phoenix – has divided the party.
DA leader John Steenhuisen’s comments defending the posters has also weakened his hand on power and led to calls for him and KZN chairperson Dean Macpherson to account. Macpherson has since apologised, and the party was forced to remove the posters.
Steenhuisen could not be reached for comment, while the party’s spokesperson Siviwe Gwarube and federal council chairperson Helen Zille did not respond to requests for comment on whether the party leader would apologise for the posters’ saga.
Meanwhile, the party’s election drive suffered yet another blow when the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) rejected its complaint about the EFF’s disclosure of funders. The party had contended that the EFF had not “honestly portrayed its financial incomes” in line with the
Political Party Funding Act. The official opposition based its conclusion on the EFF’s campaign activities.
But the IEC’s chief executive for party funding, George Mahlangu, has thrown out the complaint. “Your e-mail contains no facts or details at all regarding the conclusion you seek to draw.
In view of this, I hold a view that at this stage there is no prima-facie substance to the complaint and the duty to investigate a complaint is accordingly not triggered. I decline to investigate your complaint at this stage,” he said in a letter to DA MP Werner Horn.
For more political news and views from this week’s newspaper, click here.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
Sunday World
[/membership] [pmpro_signup submit_button=”Register” level=”1″ login=”1″ redirect=”referrer” short=”false” title=”Register to view Exclusive Content” short=”true” custom_fields=”true”]
