ANC floats R50 plan

For just R50 a month, you could help the ANC avoid falling victim to state capture.

In an effort to become less dependant on big business to fund its operations, the governing party has called on its large membership to help it become less vulnerable to the threats of state capture by regularly donating as little as R50.

City Press reports that the strategy is also intended to help the party become less reliant on businesspeople who often donate in the hopes of securing lucrative government contracts.

The strategy is reportedly the brainchild of ANC acting spokesperson Dakota Legoete and secretary-general Ace Magashule who were inspired by the Justice and Development Party – the ruling party in Turkey – which relies on this model of funding.

Legoete and Magashule were exposed to the idea during a trip to Turkey where they were hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling party.

The funding model is also similar to that of trade union Solidarity, which revealed a plan in 2015 to raise R3.5 billion in membership donations which would be used to develop a “separate and secure future for the Afrikaans population of South Africa”.

The ANC’s official membership is recorded at just under a million and if a member contributed R50, the ANC could bank on just under R50 million in a month.

This comes in the wake of President Cyril Ramaphosa signing a Bill aimed at regulating the public and private funding of political parties into law.

The strategy is reportedly the brainchild of ANC acting spokesperson Dakota Legoete and secretary-general Ace Magashule.