Rise Mzansi, a political party headed by former journalist and public intellectual Songezo Zibi, and which debuted in the 2024 elections, has come under scrutiny for having received a large donation from an obscure source.

Zibi told a media conference on Monday that the R30 million reported to the Electoral Commission (IEC) in its latest disclosure report started as a loan to the party prior to the 2024 elections. It was one of a number of loans the party had taken out, and it was struggling to repay them. The loan was written off and therefore needed to be recorded as a donation.

The loan originated from an organisation named We Are The People. When asked about this body, Zibi said that it had donated to other parties – including GOOD and the United Democratic Movement (UDM) – and that it had contributed to voter education initiatives.

He said that those interested in the organisation should “go on YouTube and so on”.

The Common Sense did so, but was unable to find much information on this organisation. There is a similarly named We The People South Africa, although an IEC report points out that this is not the donor organisation. The Common Sense could not find a website or YouTube channel for an organisation named We Are The People.

A Facebook page exists, containing material on active citizenship, the importance of voting, and related matters. It describes the organisation as “a voluntary association formed to mobilise citizens to continuously participate in democracy”. The page has not been updated since June last year.

However, aside from the R30 000 000 recorded in the IEC’s declaration of political party donations for the fourth quarter of 2025/26 (January to March 2026), it had made two previous donations to Rise Mzansi of R15 000 000 each in the fourth quarter of 2023/24 and the first quarter of 2024/25 (the maximum amount allowed from a single donor in a quarter is R15 000 000).

It is not apparent if these sums in any way refer to the loans that Zibi described, but since they are recorded as donations, it must be assumed that they are not. If so, Rise Mzansi has received a total of some R60 000 000 from We Are The People.

We Are The People is also recorded as having made comparatively modest donations of R500 000 each to GOOD and the UDM.

Zibi struck a defensive tone on the issue, claiming that the media were not following up on the funding of the Democratic Alliance – which he said was often made without proper disclosure of the identity of its donors. He also said that the Economic Freedom Fighters and the uMkhonto weSizwe Party had not made their funding public, but the media had chosen not to pursue this, as these parties would harass the journalists doing so.

He appealed to the media to be consistent in its interest in party funding.

Rise Mzansi was greeted with positivity by many in the media space, with several senior journalists editorialising that they would support it. The party achieved two seats in the National Assembly and one in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.

It recently announced community activist and political analyst Lukhona Mnguni as its mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, ahead of the November municipal elections.

The Common Sense will report any further information on We Are The People should it become available.