South African banking billionaire Michiel le Roux is pumping millions of rands into South Africa’s main opposition, the Democratic Alliance.

This was revealed in the latest quarterly political funding disclosure report from the Electoral Commission.

According to the report, which covers the first quarter of the 2023/24 financial year (April to June), the Democratic Alliance brought in the most donor funding of over R22 million, followed by the ANC with R20 million.

Only four political parties declared their donations. Other than the DA and the ANC, Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA and Mmusi Maimane’s Build One SA were the only parties to declare. The EFF did not declare any donations.

The total amount declared by the four political parties amounted to over R58 million.

This includes a late donations declaration of R1.3 million to BOSA during the third and fourth quarters of the previous financial year.

ActionSA made the third-highest declaration of R12.1 million, with BOSA declaring R2 million this quarter.

According to the Political Party Funding Act, parties may not accept private donations that exceed R15 million a year. However, loopholes exist that allow parties to sidestep this limit.

Billionaire backing

The bulk of the DA’s donation was received from an entity known as Fynbos Ekwiteit (Pty) Ltd, which donated R15 million to the party.

The entity has, over the last two financial years, made significant donations to the same party.

Fynbos Ekwiteit lists billionaire Michiel le Roux as its director, and the businessman has openly commented on the donations in the past.

Le Roux is one of five widely known dollar billionaires, with Forbes estimating his total net worth at $1 billion in 2023 (close to R19 billion in rand terms).

Le Roux’s wealth is rooted in his business investments, having founded Capitec Bank in 2001 where he owns roughly a 9% stake.

He is by no means the only billionaire getting involved with politics. Fellow dollar billionaire Patrice Motsepe donated to the ANC in 2022 through Botho-Botho Commercial Enterprise, where he is sole director.

In addition to Fynbos Ekwiteit (Pty) Ltd, the DA’s two other significant donations were received from an entity called Main Street 1564 at R5 million and an individual known as Mr G Ryan at R2 million.

ANC’s benefactors

Regarding donations to the ANC, two-thirds of its donations came from the Batho Batho Trust, which also donated the limit of R15 million.

The remainder was received from Chancellor House Trust at R5 million.

Both these entities are regular donors to the party and have very close ties to it.

Chancellor House has been criticised in the past by the DA, which alleged that the trust is being used to hide the ‘true’ source of donations to the ANC. The party claims that the trust was set up specifically to funnel funds to the ANC, acting as the ‘source” instead of the true donors.

Controversially, Chancellor House Holdings – owned by the trust – acts as the investment arm of the ANC, and has benefited from many government-linked contracts, including those at Eskom.

The Batho Batho Trust, too, has close ties to the ANC and related investment groups.

Other donations

ActionSA’s largest donation was received from an individual known as Victoria Freudenheim at R7.2 million, who has previously made a significant donation to the same party.

Two other large donations of R2 million each were received from an entity known as Solomon David Group (Pty) Ltd.

The other R2 million came from the party leader, Herman Mashaba made in two tranches.

Style Eyes of California (Pty) Ltd, another regular donor to the party, made a notable donation of R700,000 during the reporting quarter.

The newly registered Build One SA received its only declared donation of R2 million from Mr Martin Paul Moshal.

“The declared donations amounting to more than R57 million during the first quarter of the current financial year is a significant amount when compared with previous quarters.

“This is the second largest amount declared, out of nine, since the implementation of the Party Funding Act. The highest was R60.2 million declared in the second quarter of the previous financial year,” the commission said.

---

Read: hese are the richest universities in South Africa