How business aided National Party
Hennie van Vuuren's new book, Apartheid Guns and Money: A tale of profit, lifts the lid on explosive evidence of political party funding. Here's an extract
One of the greatest threats to democratic politics is the unregulated funding of political parties. This problem persists in contemporary South African politics. Powerful donors rely on a culture of secrecy to conceal their identity from ordinary voters, who might otherwise be outraged at the type of influence that such money can buy. During apartheid, very little was disclosed about how political parties raised their funds. In the white parliament, it was an open secret that large Afrikaner businesses such as Sanlam and Gencor funded the National Party (NP), and that Anglo American was a supporter of the more liberal opposition. Oppression delivers paperwork and the NP political machinery was no different. We were speechless when the archivist at the University of the Free State delivered folders marked "National Party donations". In these and other folders are letters of thanks, requests for anonymity, copies of cheques and carefully written receipts to NP donors. We have identifi...
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