ANC PROBES E200M TRANSFERRED TO ESWATINI

MBABANE – Allegations are flying back and forth that some money withdrawn from the ANC bank accounts was transferred to Eswatini.

The Times SUNDAY can reveal that the ruling party has not taken these assertions lightly. As a result, they have instituted an internal process to verify the authenticity of the claims that the political party might have lost money to the kingdom, to benefit certain powerful emaSwati. In an interview with Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri, despite the fact that the African National Congress (ANC) is currently busy with elections, the internal processes were in place to detect any anomaly that might have occurred. “We are not entertaining questions that are not elective in nature, but we feel we have to tell you that we are aware of the issue and we have instituted internal processes to verify truthfulness and accuracy of the reports that we are getting about one of us and others,” she said. Until such time, obviously after the elections, the ANC spokesperson said they would look into the matter to see if they should issue a concrete statement refuting or acknowledging any wrong that might have happened.

investigation

“At the moment, it’s not possible to say what really happened because the investigation is not complete,” she told the Times SUNDAY. A certain company allegedly transferred E34 million to the country and some ANC election funds were understood to have been compromised. In total, it was alleged that over E200 million from the ruling party’s coffers circulated in the Kingdom of Eswatini. The ANC was formed in 1912. Historically, the relationship between the ANC and Eswatini dates back to the formation of the SANNC in 1912. It is said that Queen Regent Labotsibeni and then Crown Prince Sobhuza, who became King Sobhuza II in 1921, financed the Abantu Batho newspaper, a mouthpiece of the SANNC. The organisation was founded as the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) in Bloemfontein on January 8, 1912.

Meanwhile, sources close to the ANC would have been treated harshly and unfairly if such reports could turn out to be true. This is because, not too long ago, a court had ordered the seizure of assets from its headquarters, over an unpaid E102 million bill for campaign posters produced for the previous election in 2019. It was not the first time that courts had been asked to force the ANC to pay up. In 2022 employees of the party, which has ruled South Africa for 30 years, sued for unpaid salaries. It (ANC) was so broke that it said it was trying to find lawyers willing to work pro bono on its case. The latest cash crunch could not have been more dangerously timed, according to media reports in South Africa, as ANC will face its toughest general election since Nelson Mandela won power in 1994. The elections are on May 29.

predicted

Pollsters predicted that the national vote will fall below 50 per cent, with recent surveys putting its support in the mid-40s. The higher its share, the more able the ANC will be to form a coalition with small parties, in which it is dominant. On the other hand, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published a bungle of leaked documents. It is not clear who might have leaked them. According to the documents, an ANC officer (name withheld for legal reasons) and other prominent individuals first transferred E12 million into the country. These are allegations whose veracity, as the ANC said, have not been tested or verified through formal inquiry processes.

allegations

The consortium alleged that withdrawals and transfers have been happening between 2015 and 2021. It was not clear how some powerful men close to the ANC accounts were linked to some people in Eswatini, who are understood to have received the money. Recently responding to media questions, the ANC had said it was not aware of any investigations carried out by the financial intelligence agencies in South Africa or Eswatini. However, the ruling party has now said it was taking the matter seriously. The confidential papers have been dubbed ‘Swazi Secrets’. It has been defined as a cross-border investigation that reveals Eswatini’s unexplored role as a possible conduit in southern Africa’s gold smuggling economy - and how the country’s weak anti-money laundering controls enable powerful figures to benefit.

The project is based on a leak of more than 890 000 internal records from the Eswatini Financial Intelligence Unit. These documents were obtained by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a nonprofit devoted to publishing and archiving leaks, which they shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). ICIJ coordinated a team of 38 journalists across 11 countries to explore the documents. It is understood that the leak was the largest of its kind from a financial intelligence unit in an African country. It is said that the documents included bank records, police investigation reports, court affidavits, and confidential exchanges between government agencies within southern Africa.

transactions

It is alleged that the records also included details about banks in African countries and beyond, that have facilitated financial transactions for people and companies suspected of criminal activity. Some records allegedly related to prominent individuals. The investigation is said to have highlighted the extraordinary role of some powerful people and some key allies in supporting a new bank in a year-long tussle with the regulators. Swazi Secrets also allegedly showed a potential connection between Eswatini to the larger gold smuggling economy in southern Africa and beyond. The documents are said to have shown millions of dollars passed from a notorious ‘cash-in-transit’ company in South Africa, through a gold refining company in Eswatini, then on to Dubai. This Eswatini company was set up by two business partners connected to the powerful people.

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