In South Africa, the party of the former president and friend of Putin was accused of receiving money from russia

Putin is trying to expand his influence in Africa and for this purpose began to financially support former President Jacob Zuma, who returned to politics after resigning and serving time in prison. At least, that's what African politicians and experts say. The two men have developed friendly relations, and Zuma's daughter supported Putin after he started the war in Ukraine.

Zuma, a representative of the African National Congress (ANC) party, became president in 2009 In December 2023, six months before the parliamentary elections held a week ago, he founded a new party, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK - Spear of the Nation), which unexpectedly won 14.5% of the vote. At the same time, the ANC, which had ruled the country since 1994, for the first time did not receive an absolute majority (40.2% of the vote).

Zuma's party has been well-funded since it was registered in January, John Stenhausen, leader of the largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, told the Financial Times (with 21.7% of the vote). From the very first day of the election campaign, they had tents, branded clothes and expensive campaign materials, he noted: "I am sure that the money came to their accounts from russia. This is not a family organization. I definitely believe that it was russian money."

Stenhausen, however, admitted that he had no evidence to support this. But Herman Mashaba, the former mayor of Johannesburg and leader of the ActionSA party, which broke away from the Democratic Alliance in 2020 (received 1.2% of the vote), also has questions about the sources of funding for the MK.

"The MK wasted money in these elections, but at the same time did not submit a declaration to the Election Commission of South Africa. This is incomprehensible. There have been a lot of questions about where they got the money from and we don't have hard evidence yet, but they have to explain it."

In South Africa, all parties are required to report receiving more than R100,000 ($5,300). However, the MC, unlike other parties, did not submit a declaration of donations to the Election Commission.

According to Mmusi Maimane, leader of the Building One South Africa party, the MK spent several million rands on the campaign, significantly overspending long-established parties.

Source

@freerussia_report