Several readers have been asking me
about Mamphele Ramphela’s new political party Agang. So I thought I’d put
together a special report this week. Thanks for the support guys and gals.
Mamphela Ramphele’s entry into South
African politics after a long and distinguished career has certainly been a
source for headlines since her new political party’s inception. Prior to its
formation, many speculated that the Democratic Alliance leader, Helen Zille,
was prepared to step down from her role to back Ramphele as a leader of a new
party called the Democrats. Ramphele's new party is named Agang, after the Sesotho
phrase meaning “let us build”, and Ramphele asserted that it would be a
direct challenge to the current ruling African National Congress.
Agang started out with Ramphele and a
small team, including co-founder Moeletsi Mbeki; chief of staff Zohra Dawood;
policy director Mills Soko; spokesperson John Allen; and the party’s Canadian
chief of staff, Tim Knapp. A top banker and former BP and Chevron executive,
Nkosinathi Solomon, was recently appointed as Agang’s campaign director.
Research has also shown that some of these five (Tim Knapp, Moetletsi Mbeki,
Mills Soko and Mamphela Ramphele) are directors at a company that is considered
to be the legal entity behind Agang, a Johannesburg-registered company called
Great Potential for South Africa.
Now to the murky question of the
party’s political funding…
Despite Ramphele’s insistence to the
media that she has not requested international assistance, former DA leader and
ambassador to Argentina, Tony Leon, told City Press recently that he knew that
Ramphele had staged at least two recent meetings in the US to fund-raise for
the party. One of these meetings was most certainly at the residence of the
South African-born former Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial
Court, Margaret Marshall and her husband, a former New York Times journalist. Ramphele is said to have stated she was there to raise money for Agang and
that she will continue to request support from South Africans all over the
world so that they can be part of the building process.
My research has shown that various
American businessmen have made significant contributions to the party, most
notably the Hungarian-US billionaire George Soros. Soros has reportedly donated
several million US dollars
through his Open Society Foundation. Ramphele has close links to both Soros and
the Open Society Foundation, having co-founded its South African arm with him
in 1993 and she remains a director at the Open Society Foundation of South
Africa to this day. Soros has also been able to support in other ways, such as in secondment of employees from the Open Society to Agang.
Ramphele’s closeness to former World
Bank general counsel and senior vice president Roberto Dañino could also hint
at funding from abroad; Ramphele and Dañino met at their time together at the
World Bank and were also together at gold miner Gold Fields. They reportedly
remain in close contact and Dañino is known to stay at Ramphele’s Camps Bay
home when he visits Cape Town. Given Dañino’s business connections in the USA,
it seems that Soros is not Ramphele’s exclusive source of foreign funding…
It is also worth adding that Ramphele
is also a trustee at The Rockefeller Foundation. Did she go knocking at David’s
door too?
Original articles:
I welcome requests for other special
reports.
