GOOD to challenge R90,000 Electoral Court fine over undeclared T-shirt donation

The GOOD party has said it will seek leave to appeal after the Electoral Court imposed a combined R90,000 penalty over an undeclared R900,000 payment that covered its 2021 campaign T-shirts.

Party vows to challenge judgment

Secretary-general Brett Herron, who is GOOD and Rise Mzansi’s joint candidate for Cape Town mayor, said the party would apply for leave to appeal the Electoral Court judgment, arguing the court had made several errors that affected the outcome. He said the party “operates on a very modest budget and scrupulously adheres to requirements of the [Political Party Funding] act,” and criticised the court for issuing its judgment without hearing argument or evidence.

What the court found

Judge Leicester Adams handed down the judgment on Wednesday. The court found that a R900,000 payment to settle part of an invoice for T-shirts and other campaign material constituted an undeclared donation because the payment did not appear in GOOD’s annual financial statements and the party offered no proof of payment or of any credit agreement.

The court ordered GOOD to pay an administrative penalty of R50,000, and GOOD and Brett Herron together to pay a further R40,000, bringing the total penalty in respect of the party and Herron to R90,000. Electrox Properties was fined R40,000 and its director, Elias Maponya, another R40,000.

How the matter came to court

The Independent Electoral Commission took GOOD, Herron and property firm Electrox Properties to the Electoral Court after finding the party had failed to declare the donation. The IEC’s case said GOOD bought T-shirts and other campaign material from Kairos Communications ahead of the 2021 local government elections, that the material was delivered and used by the party, and that Kairos invoiced GOOD for it. The original order came to R1,972,365.

GOOD did not pay that invoice itself. Electrox Properties settled R900,000 of the invoice in September 2021, and that money was not disclosed to the IEC.

Dispute between party and former organiser

GOOD and Herron opposed the IEC’s application and denied taking an undisclosed donation. The party argued the arrangement had been struck between its former national organiser Shaun August and Saravan Devaraj Govender, owner of Kairos; Judge Adams rejected that account, describing Electrox’s explanation of its payment as “so far-fetched that it can be rejected out of hand.”

August lodged a complaint with the IEC in June 2023, a month after GOOD expelled him for misconduct. His expulsion followed a party investigation into his conduct during a Witzenberg by-election campaign, and he failed to have the expulsion overturned in the Western Cape High Court. August is now a DA councillor in Cape Town. As a DA member he said in a statement that “There is no credibility left in that party, and now the Electoral Court has finally ruled that it is actively falling foul of the law.”

Party response

Herron criticised the judgment’s treatment of him personally, saying the judgment “reflects the court’s reliance on the fabrications of a ‘whistle-blower’ who happens to be a disgruntled former party official who was expelled.”

Timing ahead of municipal elections

The party’s stated appeal bid comes 10 weeks before voters go to the polls in the municipal elections on November 4.