THE FUSE

ANC galas are selling seats next to the president for millions. Rob and Zuks ask where lobbying ends and buying access begins.

Rob Rose and Zukile Majova are back for the eighteenth episode of Sharp Sharp, the weekly podcast on South African politics, money and power from Currency News and Scrolla.Africa.

This week’s focus is South Africa’s culture of paying for political access. ANC fundraising galas have been selling table packages by proximity to leadership, up to R2 million for a seat next to the president, R500,000 for the mayor’s table. Rob and Zuks weigh this against Donald Trump’s Truth Social, which is now selling paid early access to posts from influential accounts, including the president’s own, for up to $100,000 a month. They also look at how little of this actually gets declared under South Africa’s political funding disclosure rules, and revisit the Resolve Communications lobbying story to ask where legitimate lobbying ends and buying influence begins.

The conversation turns to another setback for Ramaphosa’s New Dawn, with IDAC head Andrea Johnson resigning after damaging testimony at the Madlanga Commission, and the Public Investment Corporation left without a board or a CEO. Rob and Zuks connect both to the growing risk that South Africa gets greylisted by the international anti-money laundering watchdog all over again.

They revisit Zuks’ own column making the case for a grand coalition between the ANC and the DA to keep the EFF and MK Party out of South Africa’s hung municipalities, before closing on Jacob Zuma tightening his personal grip over MK Party finances.

Watch now on YouTube.