A community trust with links to a local black empowerment firm that is in partnership with Shell, the global petroleum giant locked in court disputes with environmentalists over seismic blasting, donated R15 million to the ANC in the third quarter of the current financial year.
This emerged in the Independent Electoral Commission’s Public Declarations report released under the Political Party Funding Act on Tuesday.
According to the report, the R15 million that the Batho Batho Trust donated to the ANC was the single largest donation declared during the third quarter of 2021.
At the time, the firm was entangled in court battles with environmentalists and fishermen, who so far have won court interdicts to halt the seismic blasting for the exploration of fossil fuels off the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape and the West Coast in the Western Cape.
According to Shell’s website, when selecting an equity partner to broaden black participation in its downstream activities in South Africa, “Shell reinforced its long-standing business relationship with Thebe Investment Corporation (TIC), a company which was built on the premise of building communities through a sustainable business. As a 28% holder of Shell Downstream South Africa’s equity, Thebe has been a natural partner in furthering the concept of nation-building”.
TIC has strong links to the ANC as it was founded in 1992 with the sole shareholder Batho Batho Trust, a community-based trust that included Nelson Mandela, who was the chairman, and Walter Sisulu and Reverend Beyers Naude as original trustees.
Dr Enos Mabuza was the first chairman of Thebe.
According to data on 100% TIC-owned firm Thebe Stock Broking's website, Absa Capital owns 22.5% of Thebe’s shares, Sanlam holds 9.8%, the Batho Batho Trust owns 47.5%, and the balance is held by an employee equity participation scheme, Umhlomulo Equity Participation.
The IEC report highlighted 11 funding disclosures that were submitted to it in terms of the legislation.
“The 11 disclosures represent a notable increase in the number of political parties making declarations in comparison to the first and second quarters. In the two preceding quarters, only three and six parties respectively made declarations. It is noteworthy that three parties, namely ActionSA, African National Congress (ANC) and Democratic Alliance (DA) have consistently made declarations over the three quarters,” the IEC said.
“The largest amount of a single monetary donation declared is the R 15 000 000 donated by Batho Batho Trust and declared by the ANC. Furthermore, the ANC is the party with the largest value of donations declared, amounting to R 22 803 969.00, followed by the DA at R 12 519 623.47, ActionSA at R 5 072 348.50, and EFF at R 3 148 176.00. The remaining parties declared total donations that fell below R1 million.”
The cumulative amount declared in the third quarter was R 46. 036 million, which was greater than the R 30.008 million declared in the first quarter, but short of the R 56 880 644.47 declared in the second quarter.
