‘Shell-linked Batho Batho Trust donated R15 million to ANC’ 22 February 2022

A company linked to Shell – the petroleum giant that has the government's support for seismic exploration off the Wild Coast, despite public outrage – donated R15 million to the ANC in the third quarter of the current financial year. It was the single-largest donation that was declared between October and December 2021 – the period when opposition to Shell's seismic exploration plans started to grow…The ANC received the lion's share of the declared funds - R22 803 969 - and, out of this, R15 million was donated by the Shell-linked Batho Batho Trust. "The largest amount of a single monetary donation declared is the R15 000 000 donated by Batho Batho Trust and declared by the ANC," the IEC's statement read.

The Batho Batho Trust has tight links to the ANC. It holds about 47% of the black-owned investment group, Thebe, which has a 28% stake in Shell's downstream business in South Africa. Toward the end of last year, public opposition to Shell's seismic exploration plans grew. Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe – who also happens to be the ANC's national chairperson – lashed out at environmental groups and said the opposition to the exploration was a "special type" of apartheid and colonialism. Last week, the Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda dismissed Shell and Mantashe's application for leave to appeal a ruling that temporarily halted the seismic survey.