Funding report a figment of Fransman’s imagination – DA

DA leader Helen Zille. Picture: Khaya Ngwenya

The Democratic Alliance has denied receiving funding of R4 million last week.

“The statement by [ANC Western Cape leader] Marius Fransman… is a complete fabrication and a figment of Mr Fransman’s imagination,” DA spokesman Jordan Hill-Lewis said today.

The New Age newspaper quoted Fransman earlier in the day as saying the DA received the R4 million last week, and used the money to refurbish its offices in Cape Town.

Unsourced reports about funding for the DA surfaced on Saturday.

The Weekend Argus quoted unnamed sources as saying Zille had gone to the Gupta family’s estate in Saxonwold, Johannesburg, in 2011 to ask for a donation.

She left with a “substantial” cheque, believed to be several hundred thousand rand, the paper said.

In March 2011 City Press reported that Zille at the time refused to confirm or deny that she had visited the Guptas in October 2010.

City Press was told that Zille had entered the Guptas’ compound with her driver and went into the family house alone.

Her spokesperson Priya Reddy said it was party policy not to ­disclose the identity of donors.

Asked for comment by the Weekend Argus, Zille told the newspaper: “The issue is not whether the Guptas have ever donated money to the DA. The issue is, if they did, whether the DA ever channelled huge amounts of public money to them in return. The answer is no.”

The Weekend Argus said comment was not immediately available from the Guptas.

Today, The New Age newspaper, owned by the Guptas, reported Fransman as saying Zille should come clean on who funded the DA.

Sapa approached Zille’s spokesman Cameron Arendse for comment this morning, but was told Zille could not be reached immediately.

After a wait of about two hours, Arendse was still unable to comment.

Sapa then opted to lift the relevant sections from the reports in the Weekend Argus and The New Age, and told Arendse it was doing so.

This afternoon, Hill-Lewis said: “It is irresponsible of The New Age to report it (the R4 million) without any checking and irresponsible of Sapa to repeat it without any checking.”

- Sapa