In a protest on Thursday against the unequal donation policies of big business during the elections, the Freedom Front Plus handed back R10 000 to Sanlam at its head offices in Bellville, near Cape Town.
”We don’t want this donation … it is humiliation,” FF+ leader Dr Pieter Mulder told journalists outside the offices of the financial services conglomerate.
He said R10 000 donated to his party was the type of donation a political party received from a small businessman with a ”business on the street corner” and not from an organisation that last year had operating profits of about R270-million.
To further illustrate his point, Mulder said one radio advert of 30 seconds cost about R6 000, while small as well as larger political parties had to pay the same deposit of R420 000 to participate in the elections.
Mulder also compared his party’s donation with that of the ruling African National Congress, which received R700 000 from Sanlam.
Mulder said his party wanted the proportional formula used by private business to determine donations be reviewed during election years.
”In an election year … another set of criteria should be used, otherwise the governing party is only made stronger and opposition parties only weakened,” he said, complaining that the ANC already received R42-million from state funds yearly.
Mulder said an internal survey of his party revealed that more than 70% of all FF+ members were clients and stockholders of Sanlam, which he said was built largely on ”Afrikaner sentiment”.
Mulder spoke of ”political correctness being overdone” by big business, who if they were really interested in multiparty democracy, would help ensure more fairness in the allocation of monies to all parties contesting the elections.
He also made allusion to perceptions that Afrikaner parties were being short-changed, by saying that AngloGold had donated R1-million to both the ANC and Democratic Alliance, and R600 000 to the United Democratic Movement, but nothing to Afrikaner parties, ”not even the New National Party”.
Mulder led a small group of less than 40 placard-bearing members to Sanlam’s offices.
Some of the placards read: ”Sies Sanlam Sies” and ”ANC kry reeds R42-miljoen”.
Meanwhile, the secretary to Sanlam’s Corporate Social Investment advisory board, Tienie le Roux, confirmed he had accepted the cheque on behalf of Sanlam from Mulder.
Le Roux said the company was not prepared to comment beyond what was contained in a statement released earlier in March.
This statement said Sanlam had reviewed its policy — adopted with Sanlam’s listing in 1998 — not to financially support political parties.
”The [Sanlam] board views the continuing development of multiparty democracy as imperative for sustainable development, economic and business growth and the decision to support the democratic process this year was taken against the background of the 10th anniversary of South Africa’s new democracy,” said chairperson of the board Ton Vosloo.
Vosloo added that the board had consulted with its independent corporate social investment advisory board and also applied recommendations of the National Business Initiative for broad-based corporate contributions to the development of multiparty democracy in South Africa.
The board then approved donations of R700 000 to the ANC; R350 000 to the DA; R200 000 each to the NNP and the Inkatha Freedom Party; and R50 000 to the UDM.
Smaller parties in Parliament, which met criteria of representivity and support, were allocated an amount of R10 000 each. — Sapa
Special Report: Elections 2004