You can call South African politicians just about every name under the sun and find evidence to back up your claims, but good luck if you accuse them of being transparent.

Politicians the world over have long been accused of acquiring funding via dodgy means and we are no different here at home. This latest picture doing the rounds, which first appeared on Twitter, appears to show someone called ‘N Kirsh’ making a rather hefty donation to the EFF. How much? See below…

So who is Nathan Kirsh then? The South African born multibillionaire (his fortune is estimated at around $3.7 billion) has a property empire spanning Australia and the UK, amongst others, and has previously been accused of dabbling in politics. This from Mail and Guardian:

Previous reports say he has funded the Democratic Alliance as well as Agang, and was perhaps behind their forced merger. He’s also been linked to the FW de Klerk Foundation so one conspiracy theory had it that clearly this proves the EFF is a giant project by De Klerk and Kirsh to undermine the ANC.

But here’s the thing: there’s no way to verify if that document is real. It’s more likely that it is part of dozens of attempts with the murky world of politics to cast suspicion on a party.

So there is little no to legislation in this country regarding political parties having to reveal their sources of funding. How do we shape up then against other countries in this regard? Mail and Guardian again:

Instead of leading the way, South Africa is one of a handful of countries with no legislation regulating the funding of political parties.

Out of 116 countries studied by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, which has conducted comprehensive research on the subject, 100 have banned state resources from being given to parties. South Africa isn’t one of them, and we’re among the worst on the continent as far as the lack of legislation is concerned. That’s right, the rest of Africa is outpacing us in the area of party funding.

Sheesh, it’s almost as though people don’t want to address this issue in our country for some reason – strange, isn’t it?

[source:m&g]