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The Zimbabwe Political Parties Finance Act provides for funding of political parties by the State provided the party meets the threshold of five percent of the vote. Twenty-nine political parties including one launched yesterday, United Movement for Democracy Party (UMDP), have expressed interest to take part in the harmonised elections constitutionally due by June 29 and most of them have no resources.
Apart from the four main political parties represented in Parliament and guaranteed of funding from Treasury the rest of the parties lack funding. Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) president Dumiso Dabengwa said their source of funding was their membership.
“We have more than 15 000 members who help us with funding. They are not necessarily supporters but recognised members,” he said. Zanu (Ndonga) president Mr Gondai Vutuza said they were caught up between rock and a hard place as they neither got funding from Treasury nor from foreign donors.
“We are not getting any funding from the government because of the law which says we should have five percent of the vote. “We are also barred from getting any funding from donors outside the country which leaves us struggling. If we approach local donors they only refer to two parties Zanu PF and MDC-T that they back.
“We are referred to as small parties but every party has to start somewhere and grow big. However, we want to demystify that and prove that Zimbabwe is bigger than two parties,” he said.
Mr Vutuza said they would use Chipinge as a springboard to garner support from other constituencies that include Chimanimani, Bikita and Chiredzi. He added that his party derived funding from membership cards whose price was reduced from $10 to $1 to ensure as many people as possible would afford them.
“All along we have been using subscriptions derived from our party cards bought by members. There are also members of the community though not of our party who buy these cards, donate amounts in $500 or $100 amounts including donating cows and goats. But these are just a few people,” said Mr Vutuza.
Multiracial Christian Democrats (MCD) spokesperson Mr Mathias Guchutu said funding was a necessity for any party.
“We are crying foul over the issue of funding. We are like any other party but the problem is we are not receiving our share of resources. If we are talking of elections, we are surviving from donations but we are not getting the capital funds from the fiscus.
“Apart from indigenous business people, some of our funding comes from local companies which I cannot disclose,” he said.
The leader of the African National Party (ANP), Egypt Dzinemunenzva declined to disclose the source of his party’s funding.
“The issue of funding is important for a party to run effectively.
Online Reporter