The electoral commission has confirmed it will concede to Action SA's request to investigate how the ruling ANC settled its R102m debt with Ezulweni Investments, in terms of the Political Party Funding Act.

In December, the ANC announced it had reached an out-of-court settlement with Ezulweni, which had earlier threatened to attach the party’s assets to recover the debt.

Action SA national chair Michael Beaumont told TimesLIVE he welcomed the investigation into the funds used by the ANC to settle its Ezulweni debt and the funding sources to be made public, calling the settlement agreement "dodgy".

"It has been obscene that South Africans have been expected to believe that R10m in disclosed donations somehow funded the R102m debt settlement for a political party that six months ago could not pay salaries.

"We need to work to ensure that South Africans are not footing the bill for this settlement through tenders and state contracts."

This follows the end of a bitter four-year legal dispute last month between the ANC and Ezulweni over a debt for services rendered during the 2019 election campaign. The deal and funding sources remain secret. 

Beaumont said the move by Action SA would ensure South Africans learnt how the debt was settled and whether it was settled lawfully.

“The revelations of the state capture inquiry, which paved the way for the Party Funding Act, revealed in great detail how the ANC funded its activities through its donors receiving tenders,” he said.

In its argument, ActionSA cited provisions of the Party Funding Act, including:    

• any discount agreed to by Ezulweni Investments on the R102m cannot legally exceed the R15m donation limit;
• any payments made by ANC donors to Ezulweni Investments would constitute donations in kind to the ANC; and
• any payments made to Ezulweni by any individual ANC donor cannot exceed R15m and would require no less than seven donors to legally settle the debt.

In a letter to Action SA, the IEC said the matter was being attended to in line with the prescripts of the Political Party Funding Act 6 of 2018. 

TimesLIVE