This is who is bankrolling the DA

The Democratic Alliance (DA) declared an amount of over R32 million in donations in the last financial quarter, the largest amount received by any South African party. 

The party’s declared funding mainly comes from a small group of South African businessmen, most of them linked to Capitec Bank founder Michiel le Roux, as well as foreign organisations connected to political parties.

The majority of the party’s funding for the first quarter of 2025/26 came from Fynbos Ekwiteit (Pty) Ltd and Fynbos Kapitaal Propriety Limited, who donated a collective R25 million to the party. 

These companies share the same ownership, that of billionaire and Capitec Bank founder, Michiel le Roux.

Le Roux was able to exceed the donor threshold specified by the Political Parties Funding Act of R15 million a year because his companies are separate judicial entities. 

Civil society organisation, My Vote Counts (MVC), told Newsday that since reporting began in 2021, the DA has received 44% of its private donations from companies associated with Le Roux.

It is important to note that parties can accept payments from donors of up to R200,000 without disclosing them and that this data is only available for donations above this threshold, or some others that have been declared.

The group said that, in April 2024 and June 2025, the DA received a collective R30 million and R25 million, respectively, from the Fynbos group of companies, when the donation limit of R15 million was still in place.

New regulations, doubling the threshold to R30 million, were only gazetted by President Cyril Ramaphosa in August 2025.

The group explained that the funding act does not prohibit donations from related entities. “This is in fact entirely legal, although it clearly circumvents the spirit of the Act,” MVC said.

This was one of MVC’s arguments when it recently challenged the constitutionality of the act in court. The application was dismissed.

“In our legal papers, we argued that the Act’s failure to regulate donations from related entities renders it unconstitutional and unable to meet its objectives,” MVC said.

In its legal papers, MVC said that Le Roux and his entities are a glaring example of individuals dividing contributions through multiple entities to sidestep nominal thresholds.

“These few donors exert disproportionate influence, underscoring the vulnerability of the current system to circumvention and the need to regulate donations from related entities/persons” the court papers read.

Le Roux is one of the top 20 richest people in Africa. He founded Capitec Bank in 2001, targeting South Africa’s emerging middle class. 

He has been known to be quiet on his political views, despite his significant donations to the DA.

The party disclosed a further R2 million donation from Jufrapi Investments, a company linked to Petrus Johannes Mouton, who holds directorships at Capitec, CURRO Holdings, PSG Financial Services, and PSG Group.

Mouton is the son of Capitec co-founder Jannie Mouton. His diverse portfolio of investments has propelled him to the ranks of the wealthiest investors on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. 

The party received an additional R1.4 million this quarter from an entity called Main Street 1564 and R250,000 from Discovery Central Services.

While these businesses were the DA’s biggest donors this quarter, the party also received an in-kind donation of over R1 million from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for “training and skills development. 

Foreign donations

German non-profit organisation, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, is a frequent donor to the party, with monetary contributions dating back several years. 

The foundation is closely linked to Germany’s Free Democratic Party (FDP). It is funded by Germany´s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

It was founded by German President Theodor Heuss in 1958, with the goal of disseminating the party’s liberalist agenda to other countries.

Recently, the foundation invited a delegation from the Democratic Alliance “to deepen exchanges with European institutions and liberal partners,” according to the institution.

The delegation was given insights into the German governmental system and liberal campaign strategies. 

This is not the DA’s only foreign donor linked to European governments. The party also frequently receives donations from the Danish Liberal Democracy Programme.

The DA received a donation of almost R800,000 from the Danish organisation in the third quarter of the last financial year. 

The programme was established by Venstre, the Liberal Party of Denmark. Its goal is to support democracy in developing countries and encourage multi-party government systems.

Dutch political party, Voor Vrijheid en Democratie, has also been known to donate to the DA, according to MVC. 

The Political Funding Act, which came into effect in April 2021, limits donations from foreign states and citizens.

The act specifies that donations from non-South African entities can only be used for skills and training, and policy development. 

According to the DA’s website, this money is not used towards election campaigns or party political activities. 

The DA opposed MVC’s court application to have the Political Party Funding Act declared unconstitutional, along with ActionSA.

DA parliamentary member Adrian Roos said that there is no evidence that wealthy donors making significant contributions to certain parties exert influence over policy priorities.