Nothing sinister about CR17 campaign payments, says Godongwana
Political analyst Dirk Kotze said there was no legislation or ethics code regulating the raising and use of election campaign funds by individual candidates.
President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa addresses a public meeting, where the South African government is returning land lost during Apartheid to the descendants of the original inhabitants of rural areas around Ebenhaeser, on March 23, 2019, in the Western Cape Province, about 350km from Cape Town. – This land restitution is one of the largest to have taken place in the province, with a value of more than R350 000 000(US$25 000 000). Imbalanve of land ownership in South Africa due to colonial and Apartheid policies remains a major point of tension in the country, and will affect the upcoming elections on May 8, 2019. (Photo by RODGER BOSCH / AFP)
One of the leading CR17 campaigners and a staunch ally of President Cyril Ramaphosa, Enoch Godongwana, says there was nothing sinister in the payments they received for participating in the campaign.
Instead, he insists the money was for legitimate campaign work and was accounted for. Godongwana, who is chair of the ANC subcommittee on economic transformation, said the payments were for work done by individuals and amounts differed according to the amount of work a person did.
He was responding to Ramaphosa’s opponents’ intensified campaign to attack the president after more names of beneficiaries from payments to certain individuals by his 2017 ANC presidential campaign, known as CR17, were revealed in leaked bank statements over the weekend.
Among those who allegedly received payments were Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula and Deputy Minister of State Security Zizi Kodwa, who reportedly each received R40,000.
According to a City Press story that published information from the leaked bank statements that showed the transactions, and which subsequently circulated on social media, the payments to Mbalula and Kodwa were made on the same date. The same amount was also paid to one Jama Mchunu.
In separate report, the Sunday Independent reported that Ramaphosa’s supporters have accused Small Business Development Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni and other CR17 campaign managers of having enriched themselves from funds raised in CR17 campaign.
The newspaper highlighted that at least 10 CR17 activists from Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West and KwaZulu-Natal said they felt used and betrayed by Ntshavheni and her fellow campaign managers.
But Kodwa denied receiving any money from the “so-called CR17” while Mbalula, in a tweet yesterday responding to one of Ramaphosa’s critics on Twitter, said: “You guys are just gullible. Check when the deposit was made 03 jan 2019. It had nothing to do with CR17 campaign. #CR17leaks #RamaphosaLeaks #CR17BankStatements”.
Godongwana told The Citizen that “there is nothing sinister here”.
Political analyst Dirk Kotze said there was no legislation or ethics code regulating the raising and use of election campaign funds by individual candidates, and even the funding of political parties.
“There is no clarity and no reference in legislation or a code of ethics about who [campaign] money belongs to and how it should be used,” Kotze said.
Kotze, who is professor of political studies at Unisa, questioned why the funds donated to other ANC candidates and those of the opposition parties were not scrutinised.
“There is no onus on any of these persons to reveal their sources of funding and they are not obliged to say how they used the money,” he said.
– ericn@citizen.co.za
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