How to see where and from whom South African political parties get their money from

My Vote Counts, a voting rights advocacy group, has launched a new interactive tool that tracks where political parties get their money from.

The Political Party Funding Act, signed into law in 2021, requires political parties to disclose donations greater than R100,000. The new tool, called Whose Vote Counts, aims to make that data accessible to voters, activists and journalists.

“Next year we’re going into what is probably our most consequential election since 1994,” said Minhaj Jeenah, executive director of My Vote Counts, during a media briefing on Thursday. “The funding of politics [and] the inclination to buy influence is going to be a big topic.”

GroundUp spent some time exploring the tool. Here are our three key takeaways.

Russia-linked mining company is ANC’s biggest single donor

Breakdown of ANC donors for 2021 and 2022. Source: Whose Vote Counts (accessed 4 August 2023)

Mining and energy interests make up more than 40% of declared funding — mostly to the ANC

Figure 3: Flow of disclosed donations over R100,000 to all political parties. Source: Whose Vote Counts (accessed 4 August 2023)

Figure 4: Flow of disclosed donations over R100,000 from Patrice Motsepe and linked companies to political parties. Source: Whose Vote Counts (accessed 4 August 2023)

Figure 5: Breakdown of donations by Patrice Motsepe and his companies to political parties. Source: Whose Vote Counts (accessed 4 August 2023)

Figure 6: Flow of donations over R100,000 from members of Oppenheimer family to political parties. Source: Whose Vote Counts (accessed 4 August 2023)

Figure 7: Flow of donations over R100,000 from Martin Moshal to political parties. Source: Whose Vote Counts (accessed 4 August 2023)