Vodacom, jumping on the corporate bandwagon, announced that it would be donating R3-million for political funding on Wednesday. The announcement follows a R6,2-million donation from MTN on Tuesday.
But this time only the four main political parties get to milk the corporate cow.
The African National Congress, Democratic Alliance, Inkatha Freedom Party and New National Party will each receive a share, but Mthobi Tyamzashe, Vodacom’s corporate affairs group executive, said it had not yet been decided how it would be divided.
The R3-million donation was a once-off payment through the cellphone operator’s corporate social investment arm, the Vodacom Foundation, said Tyamzashe.
He said it did not constitute a deviation from Vodacom’s policy of not funding political parties but was rather a ”contribution towards the advancement of multiparty democracy”.
At the beginning of March, Standard Bank and the Liberty Group announced an unprecedented donation of R6,5-million towards parties’ election funding.
The banking group split the funds evenly between all parties, according to Independent Electoral Commission specifications.
Most banks have made a policy of not funding political organisations, although Absa has been donating undisclosed amounts of cash to ”the major political parties” for years.
This latest announcement brings to R15,7-million the amount of political funding donated openly from the corporate sector during the election run-up. – Sapa