AngloGold Ashanti announces party political donations for South Africa's 2009 election
The board of AngloGold Ashanti has approved the donation of a total of R4 million to a number of parties competing in South Africa's 2009 general election. The apportionment of the available funding is as follows:
African National Congress - R2,000,000
Democratic Alliance - R800,000
Congress of the People - R500,000
Inkatha Freedom Party - R500,000
Independent Democrats - R100,000
United Democratic Movement - R 100,000
The decision was made within the framework of the company's policy on political donations, which was approved by the board in 2003.
This policy states that the company's purpose in funding political parties is:
to support democracy rather than its own interests;
to promote political competition, public scrutiny of policy- and law-making, and the exercise of executive power; and to encourage a policy-making environment in which there is a healthy and robust competition of ideas.
The criteria for determining the distribution of available funds is set out in the policy. It states, among other things, that recipients should posses "a capacity to contribute meaningfully to democratic political debate, and to the generation of policy ideas for public consideration and choice; and a capacity to contribute constructively to building a culture of executive accountability and parliamentary oversight."
These criteria require the board to make certain value judgments. The board took the view that a robust democracy depends on the existence of a relatively small number of stronger parties rather than a large number of tiny ones, and hence decided to limit donations to parties that, in its judgment, meet these criteria.
It also maintained the position that, given the rationale of the policy, the amount distributed to opposition parties should be at least 50% of the total.
A sub-committee of the board comprising the South African independent non-executive directors debated these matters, and their recommendation was approved by the full board.
Statement issued by Anglo Gold Ashanti, March 18 2009
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