Money in politics: An assessment of the private funding of the African National Congress in power: Implications for South Africa’s democracy.

This paper explores the significance and implications of private donations to the governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), and the subsequent impact on South Africa’s democracy. This study examines the influence exerted by these donations on senior political office bearers, public officials, and bureaucrats (government administrators), mainly from the ANC. The paper analyses cases recently revealed in the State Capture Commission Report (SCCR), which shows a clear nexus of influence between donations received and benefits given in the form of high-value government tenders. The main line of argument in this paper is that the principle of political equality and the robustness of the democratic system (accountable, responsive, open) is discredited and undermined by a conflict of interests induced by private donations that build patron-client relations between the ANC in power – the chief holder of government tenders – and big businesses that donate generously to the ANC. The paper analyses the following documents to arrive at its findings: think-tank publications, research reports by multilateral and domestic civil society organizations, government publications, credible newspaper articles, and the SCCR (2022). The paper found that private donations to the ANC build patron-client relations that corrode democratic quality and the principle of political equality.