Naspers gives R2 million to the ANC and DA

The Electoral Commission’s fourth quarter political funding disclosure report reveals that Naspers gave R2 million to the ANC and the DA.

The report, released two weeks before the generation elections, covers donations from 1 January to 31 March 2024.

For the first time since the inception of the Party Funding Act, the declared value of donations has surpassed R100 million in any one quarter.

In the first three months of the year, political donors gave R172 million to South Africa’s political parties.

This is higher than all of the quarters previously reported on and the combined quarterly disclosures reported during the previous two financial years.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) received the most funding, R65 million, followed by the now-defunct Change Starts Now, which received R39 million.

Other big beneficiaries include the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which received R20 million, the African National Congress (ANC), which received R17 million, and Rise Mzansi, which received R15 million.

The biggest donors included Jonathan Oppenheimer and Nicky Oppenheimer at R20 million each, Main Street 1564 at R27 million, and We Are The People at R16 million.

One donor that stood out was from Naspers, which gave R2 million each to the Democratic Alliance (DA) and African National Congress (ANC).

Other large companies, like African Rainbow Minerals and Harmony Gold, gave proposal funding to the ANC, DA, EFF, and FF Plus.

However, Naspers broke this trend and donated equal amounts to the largest two political parties.

It may be that it did not want to support the business-unfriendly and leftist EFF and favoured the centrist DA.

It is also interesting that Naspers does not have much interest in South Africa outside of its holdings in Takealot and Media24.

Although the company is still officially based in South Africa, it is essentially an Amsterdam-based Internet investment firm.

Its significant holding in the Chinese technology giant Tencent through Prosus accounts for most of Naspers’ value.

All of Prosus’ other biggest holdings, like OLX, Delivery Hero, Swiggy, iFood, and Stack Overflow, have nothing to do with South Africa.

Naspers and Prosus’ biggest remaining link to South Africa is its chairman, Koos Bekker. The leadership team is mostly global executives.

Its new CEO, Fabricio Bloisi, former CEO Bob van Dijk, and acting CEO, Ervin Tu, have virtually no ties to South Africa.

It is unclear who decided on Naspers’ South African political funding decision. It may be Bekker, Naspers South Africa CEO Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa, or a company decision.