African
National Congress supporters at a rally for President Cyril Ramaphosa
in the Alexandra township in Johannesburg, South Africa, in April.CreditJoao Silva/The New York Times
Image
JOHANNESBURG
— The “war room” for the African National Congress candidates running
in local elections three years ago was an elaborate operation with new
computers, wall monitors, lodging for volunteers and catered food three
times a day.
But the A.N.C., the
party in power for the 25 years since the end of apartheid, did not fund
its own war room. A South African company named Bosasa
paid for everything, including the wages of the so-called volunteers,
according to recent testimony at a government inquiry on corruption.
Now
as South Africans prepare to vote in a pivotal general election on May
8, the public does not know where the A.N.C. and the opposition parties
raised the tens of millions of dollars needed to run rallies, print
posters, buy television ads and perform myriad other tasks as part of
their campaigns across a vast land of 57 million people.
Though
South Africa has long been held up as a model of democratization,
revelations at the inquiry indicate that the financing of its elections
appears to be riddled with the same kind of corrupt practices that have consumed the nation in recent years.
Bosasa
has been at the center of the ongoing government inquiry on public
corruption. The company was accused by several whistle-blowers,
including the former chief operating officer, of using bribes to win
lucrative contracts from government officials affiliated with the A.N.C.
And to keep the money flowing, it made sure the A.N.C. remained in
power, in part by paying for a campaign war room.
For
nearly two decades, the A.N.C. and rival parties had fought efforts in
the courts by advocacy groups to force them to reveal information about
their private efforts. The A.N.C. has consistently denied criticism that
it opposed campaign finance reform to keep its donors secret.
World Press Freedom Day
.
“It’s been a huge gap, a huge weakness in our political system,” said Lawson Naidoo, executive secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, an advocacy group.
A recent about-face by the A.N.C. had raised hopes — prematurely, it turned out — that things might be different this year.
Angelo Agrizzi, center, Bosasa’s former chief operating officer and now a whistle-blower.CreditSiphiwe Sibeko/Reuters.
Under
pressure in the courts and from anti-corruption groups, the A.N.C.
pushed through legislation mandating more transparency in election
financing. But President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has been running on a
campaign against corruption, delayed signing the bill by a few months —
just enough time to ensure that the law would not be implemented in time
for this election.
Advertisement
What’s more, Mr. Ramaphosa himself is now under investigation for a $36,000 donation his campaign received — from Bosasa.
The
public protector’s office, a government anti-corruption agency, is
investigating Mr. Ramaphosa on suspicion of lying in parliament about
the donation from Bosasa. Initially, Mr. Ramaphosa said the money had
been received by his son, Andile. The son began working as a highly paid
consultant for Bosasa around the same time that Mr. Ramaphosa became
president in February 2018.
Mr.
Ramaphosa later acknowledged that the money had been given to an
attorney working for his successful campaign for the A.N.C.’s internal
party election in December 2017 — a contest that was marred by
widespread fraud in some provinces.
Source: New York Times.
Source: New York Times.
Comments
Post a Comment