ANC challenges Premier Winde on financial disclosure of Under2 Coalition payment

The ANC has intensified its challenge to Premier Alan Winde’s administration, arguing that the Department of the Premier’s failure to disclose a R51 000 reimbursement from the Under2 Coalition has now confirmed the need for external scrutiny.

In a statement issued on December 4, Opposition Leader Khalid Sayed, speaking on behalf of the ANC Caucus, condemned what he called the Department’s “dismissive and evasive conduct” during Friday’s Standing Committee session on the adjustment budget. Sayed said the Department had “failed yet again to disclose the R51 000 payment received from the Under2 Coalition for the Premier’s trip to New York last year,” despite the reimbursement being received in April.

Sayed said the payment “does not appear in the revenue section of the Adjusted Estimates, nor in the legally required gifts and donations table,” adding that the omission “raises serious concerns about transparency, compliance with Treasury regulations, and the integrity of the Department’s financial reporting.”

According to Sayed, the Department insisted it “did not need” to declare the payment and had adopted “an arrogant posture that undermines public trust and weakens the credibility of provincial governance.”

Sayed said the ANC’s decision to approach both the Registrar of Members’ Interests and the Public Protector was “fully vindicated,” arguing: “Friday’s responses confirm that external oversight is not only justified, but essential to safeguard accountability in the Western Cape Government.”

This follows the ANC’s earlier complaint to the Public Protector, lodged by Sayed. At the time, he said: “We believe and evidence shows that the premier has failed to disclose a R51 000 donation that he received from the Under2Coalition, an external non-governmental entity to attend the climate week in New York in September last year. That R51 000 was for his flights.”

Sayed emphasised the issue was compliance, not the donation: “We don’t have a problem with him receiving this R51 000 but the rules of the legislature and the code of members’ ethics is very strict.”

He said the ANC took the matter through the legislature first by submitting a complaint to the registrar but escalated it because “the Executive Members Ethics Code (EMEC) requires that to investigate alleged breaches and report them to the president. We are hopeful that they will be reported to the president and that the necessary sanction is imposed.”

Sayed also dismissed claims the move was politically driven: “We aren’t doing this to play petty politics and score cheap political points against the DA or the Premier. This is to ensure transparency and accountability in the Western Cape.”

He has challenged Winde’s position that the disclosure in the annual report was adequate: “We saw that he had, indeed, disclosed it in the annual report but that’s not really disclosure. The disclosure should have come before the end of April to the registrar in the Western Cape Provincial Legislature,” he said. “From a process and transparency perspective, it’s completely wrong and we don’t accept his explanation.”

In response to media queries, Premier Winde’s spokesperson Regan Thaw earlier said: “The trip was duly disclosed in the Department of the Premier's Annual Report. Nothing was concealed.”

Sayed said the unanswered questions about the reimbursement deepen concerns about “financial transparency within the Premier’s administration,” adding that no public office “is above scrutiny.”

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