BLF in campaign clash
BLAME: PARTY SAYS OPPENHEIMERS BEHIND CANCELLATION OF FUNDRAISER
BackABuddy says it ‘did not comply with organisation’s terms and conditions’.
Black First Land First (BLF) has accused the Oppenheimer family of having their crowdfunding campaign on BackABuddy cancelled. The campaign sought to raise the R600 000 deposit needed for it to contest the 2019 elections.
The party said it would use the funds for “worthy social upliftment projects” once the deposit was returned by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), namely “upgrading a school and building a house for a deserving family”.
The campaign was removed from BackABuddy yesterday, with a note explaining its decision and saying that those who wish to support the campaign can contact BLF directly.
BackABuddy’s Catherine du Plooy told Saturday Citizen the removal of the campaign “had nothing to do with the Oppenheimers”, adding that it was removed because it “did not comply with our terms and conditions”.
In a tweet, the party’s deputy president, Zanele Lwana, accused the crowdfunding site of double standards because while the BLF campaign was removed, the site had hosted campaigns for AfriForum in the past.
The site has hosted two campaigns connected to AfriForum, one to raise money for a private prosecution case by the SPCA on behalf of advocate Gerrie Nel, which the site says did not go live, and one for AfriForum-linked union Solidariteit, which raised R295 000 for a family who lost their children in an accident.
In a statement, BackABuddy says that while it began by raising money for “nonprofit organisations or for individuals”, it later broadened the criteria to include “various organisations who, while not political parties, do engage in the political discourse”.
The statement continues to note that while BackABuddy accepted the Solidariteit and AfriForum campaigns, and also initially accepted the BLF one, it had since “realised that accepting campaigns from political organisations, whoever they are, can sow division, which is in direct conflict with the founding mission of BackaBuddy”.
BLF’s national head of media and communications Brian Tloubatla was asked on what it based its assertion that the Oppenheimers were behind the removal of the campaign.
Tloubatla repeated the press release almost verbatim. Their link of the Oppenheimers to the removal of the campaign appears to be based on its timing which, it says, was “a few hours after the BLF confronted the Oppenheimers in parliament”.
The party believes that, in shutting down the campaign, “white capital showed us its power”. –