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Monitoring the Funding of Political Parties
In South Africa
An initiative of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), in partnership with the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa), this project sought to provide the public with a source of information with which to monitor the reported sources of private funding to political parties, as well as provide up to date analysis, international studies and detailed background information on disclosure regulations. It was set against the following objectives:
- To provide tools for political parties, policy makers and others to develop regulation of the private funding of political parties.
- To assist the media, civil society and the research community with background information on this issue.
- To produce a database that will help keep track of reported instances of private funding of political parties – the first online database of its kind on the African continent.
Some of the main project outputs to date include:
- The Money in South African Politics website (www.whofundswho.org.za) .
- A commissioned research paper - SA Democracy Incorporated. Corporate Fronts and Political Party Funding. Central to the paper is its focus on party funding sources with possible links to corrupt transactions. In particular it brings under the spotlight an alleged new corporate front used by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to augment its income: Chancellor House.
- Five regional workshops introducing the website to journalists and policy researchers. These to took place in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, and Mpumalanga.
Project Head: Hennie van Vuuren (
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In Southern Africa
The significance of foreign political donations to domestic political parties surprisingly remains a virtually neglected research subject. This is rather curious given the powerful role foreign donations can play in determining the shape and form of a political parties’ public policies. Sources of foreign funding to political parties in Africa include foreign governments, political parties, multinational corporations, political foundations and wealthy individuals. This project, will assist in identifying cross-border political donations to Africa’s political parties and tracing their effect on policy formation. The research focuses on selected country case studies and is aimed at engaging African policy-makers in the global debate on how to monitor the impact of money in African politics
Project Head: Andile Sokomani (
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