Govt Awards ZANU PF, MDC-A $100m In Political Funding
ZANU PF and the MDC Alliance (MDC-A) will share ZWL$100 million disbursed by Treasury under the Political Parties (Finance) Act in 2021.
This was revealed by the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Ziyambi Ziyambi in a notice this Friday.
In terms of General Notice 244 of 2021, ZANU PF shall be paid $70 030 000 after it received 70,03% of votes cast in the 2018 general elections.
The MDC Alliance, which received 29,9% of the total votes cast in the 2018 harmonised elections, will get $29 970 000. Said Ziyambi:
IT is hereby notified, in terms of section 3(2) of the Political Parties (Finance)Act[Chapter 2:11], that the total amount of moneys payable to political parties in respect of the year beginning 1st January 2021 and ending on 31st December 2021, is one hundred million dollars.
The money shall be disbursed to political parties that qualify in terms of section 3(3) of the Act as follows… seventy million and thirty thousand dollars ($70 030 000,00) shall be paid to the Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) ZANU (PF) which received 70,03% of the votes cast
… twenty-nine million nine hundred and seventy thousand dollars ($29 970 000,00) shall be paid to the Movement for Democratic Change- ALLIANCE (MDC-A), which received 29,9% of the total votes cast.
The Political Parties Finance Act stipulates that only a political party that secures 5 per cent of the total votes cast can benefit from the national budget.
In the 2018 elections, ZANU PF won 145 of the 210 seats in the National Assembly against MDC-Alliance’s 63.
The remaining two seats were won by the National Patriotic Front’s Masango “Blackman” Matambanadzo (Kwekwe Central), now late, and independent candidate Temba Mliswa (Norton).
The MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa will not get a cent, however. Last year the government disbursed the funds meant for the MDC-A to the MDC-T in spite of a High Court interdict.
The MDC-T contested the elections under Thokozani Khupe but failed to reach the 5% minimum threshold to qualify for government funding.
Nevertheless, in March 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that Khupe, who was succeeded by Douglas Mwonzora in December, was the legitimate leader of the MDC-T.
Political analysts have argued that the government is deliberately trying to choke the MDC-A by channelling its finances to the court-reconstituted MDC-T.
