The president of the All Citizens Party, Dr Senathi Fisha, is upset that she has failed to get funding for her newly formed political party from South Africa’s richest family, the Ruperts.
“We tried, like any other political party, to file a request for funding from the Ruperts, but we never got a response,” Dr Fisha told Scrolla.Africa.
South Africa’s richest man, Johann Rupert, has a total net worth of about R188-billion.
“As we speak, I’m running dry of funds because I’m paying for all party activities from my pocket,” said Dr Fisha.” But this shows that if you are a small political party not from their circles, you won’t get anything since you might disrupt the status quo.”
Dr Fisha claims that anyone talking about change is playing because the only people coming back to power are the same big political parties funded by the Oppenheimers.
New and smaller parties have previously accused the Rupert and the Oppenheimer families of ignoring their funding requests.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has disqualified some parties from taking part in the polls over financial issues.
According to IEC data published in March by the Outlier, the ANC, DA, ActionSA, EFF and Build One South Africa are the biggest beneficiaries of private donations from the Oppenheimer family and others.
The My Vote Counts lobby group, formed in 2012 to press the government to amend electoral laws to allow for greater transparency, says three billionaires – Patrice Motsepe, Martin Moshal and the Oppenheimer Family – have exerted their influence on politics to the tune of over R100-million in the last two years.
The ANC, DA, ActionSA, the EFF, IFP and the Freedom Front Plus received millions from these three donors, the lobby group says.
Durban-born billionaire Moshal, an Israeli-South African businessman, cumulatively donated R44.5-million to two parties: the DA and ActionSA.
Billionaire Motsepe, through three of his companies, African Rainbow Minerals, Harmony Gold and Botho Botho (Ubuntu-Botho Investments), has cumulatively donated R36.8-million
Moshal and members of the Oppenheimer family made one-third of the R437-million in party donations declared to the IEC.
Pictured above: Billionaires Johann Rupert and Nicky Oppenheimer.
Image source: X
