Rise Mzansi Leader Songezo Zibi, a former journalist-turned-politician, during a media briefing on Monday in Johannesburg.

• Rise Mzansi's Songezo Zibi has called for consistency as his party faces questions over donations from one organisation.
• The electoral commission has asked questions about the funding.
• Zibi claims journalists are too scared to ask parties such as the MK Party and the EFF about their funding, for fear of being bullied on social media.

A R30 million donation to Rise Mzansi from a relatively unknown entity has become the centre of the latest questions around political funding in South Africa.

But party leader Songezo Zibi has dismissed questions about the donations and claimed there needed to be consistency not only from the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) but also from journalists in their questioning of who funded political parties.

“Let us be consistent, guys,” said Zibi, a former journalist turned politician, during a media briefing on Monday in Johannesburg.

The R30 million question has become a sore point for the party as the IEC has sought answers about the donation from a relatively unknown entity called We Are The People.

The IEC’s questions centre around the conversion of a loan to a donation. As News24 reported, this is the biggest single donation to a political organisation since mandated funding came into effect.

READ | IEC to ask ANC, Rise Mzansi to explain donations

On Monday, Zibi explained his party made several loans during the 2024 election campaign, one of which was from We Are The People. Currently, the party has serviced several loans.

“We’ve paid just north of a million rand, servicing those loans because the Party Political Funding Act requires that those loans are on commercial terms,” he said.

Zibi told journalists the party had struggled to repay all the money.

Zibi explained that, in this case, where the debtor was not in a “position to repay that money”, there were two options: either liquidate the loan or write it off.

“The Party Political Funding Act requires that if you owe somebody money and they say you don’t have to pay it anymore, you must declare that as a donation because it’s a financial benefit,” he said.

Zibi said:

Zibi acknowledged there had been questions about who We Are The People is.

“I really would invite you to go to YouTube and so on,” he said.

“They’ve donated to us, they’ve donated to the GOOD party, they’ve donated to the UDM,” he said. The organisation has also donated to voter education programmes, he said.

Peculiar happenings over funding 

Zibi told journalists that a “peculiarity” occurred: declarations to the DA were made only in numbers and letters. “You guys are not interested in asking them who those people are,” said Zibi.

Zibi said that because this donation involved Rise Mzansi, journalists then ask, “Who are these people?”

“Let us be consistent, guys; and this is our message to the IEC,” said Zibi.

He said whoever believed that the MK Party did not have any additional sources beyond the R270 00 declared so far by the country’s third-biggest party, “you also believe pigs fly”.

Zibi told journalists:

Zibi continued: “You also don’t ask similar questions of the EFF, which declares almost nothing, because they will bully you online, and you know it.”

Ahead of the 2024 elections, EFF leader Julius Malema said the party had been funded through a series of loans and party allocations, reported Sunday World.