South Africa’s major political parties are following the successful lead of Barack Obama by harnessing cellphone payment technology to raise funds, but in a surprising twist for SA’s hotly divided elections they’re all united in using the same service.
As from today, Wednesday 17 December any voter who wants to support their party and sms’ 39621 and registers to pay on their cellphone can make a payment to Congress of the People, Inkatha Freedom Party or Independent Democrats. By the end of this week the African National Congress, United Democratic Movement and Freedom Front Plus are expected to have signed up too.
African Christian Democrats as well as every political party registered with the Independent Electoral Commission has been approached with a view to participating and have yet to make decisions.
Pocit Elect is a world first for political parties and is being keenly watched by the diplomatic and international voting and banking community.
It can be used by anyone who has a bank account, Visa or Mastercard credit card or cheque card through any cellphone service provider and on any cellphone with an internet browser – most cellphones sold since 2004 or most cellphones with a colour screen.
It can be used by those without a bank account if money is transferred into their cellphone by another person. It cannot be used with a debit card.
Unlike some companies that are charging political parties R5 for premium messaging – of which R2,50 goes to the cellphone service provider such as Vodacom or MTN and 70% of the remaining R2,50 to the political party with 30% to the messaging service, Pocit Elect is free to the person who uses it and is at no cost to the political party but for 5% to cover costs.
“We are taking 5% off the top,” David Reynders, managing director of Pocit said, “and that 5% is merely to cover our costs, if any of that money is left at the end of the election we will donate it to the Read Educational Trust. Our corporate slogan is ‘democratising commerce’ and so we thought, why don’t we allow people to put their money where their vote is with this election.
“It allows the South African public to have a direct input into this election, to send money to those parties they want to win by allowing them to boost the money they need. An election is a very costly process, it costs R40 000 to register and just to get on a national ballot it costs a political party close to R600 000 and that is before they have funded a single meeting, filled up one of the many vehicles they need to use, it is before they have bought a plane ticket or even printed posters. The estimates we are hearing from political parties is that they need a minimum of R10million each to wage a successful election campaign.
“Small parties have traditionally been at a disadvantage because big business has made the parties closes to the seats of power wealthy, with this election we allow the ordinary voter to become the person with the real power. With Barack Obama’s campaign most donations were US$10 and it gave him the most lavish campaign chest of any election yet. Pocit Elect allows people to donate as little as R5 to as much as R99 999 – or more through multiple payments.
“This puts power back into the hands of ordinary people. In a sense, citizens can vote with their money before they vote on the ballot.
“Pocit Elect will be able to track funding trends and will on a monthly basis be able to let political parties know how many donations they are receiving and how much as well as the value of the average donation. It will also be able to show them peaks in funding, so as an example, they will know if a particular rally with a particular speaker saw a peak in requests and donations.”
Reynders said Pocit was approaching a media partner so that closer to the election a barometer of how much each party is getting in donations can be made public to form an indicator of early political trends.
Oliver Krantz, chief operations officer of Pocit Elect said Pocit’s technicians were on a “very fast learning curve. We are delighted that political parties have been so keen. Their feedback is helping us to hone our world-first product into something truly exceptional. For those people who have registered to pay, payment is instantaneous regardless of whether they pay by credit card, cheque card or a bank account.
“Every person first needs to download a small application from http://www.pocit.mobi/ on their cellphone.
“They then register by entering their name, identification number, pin, security questions and after that bank account details. Those with a credit card or cheque card can pay immediately.
“However, there is a delay in payment when a person with a savings account registers to pay while we ascertain, for security reasons their details. This is a once-off process.”
Krantz said that: “For those with a savings account we then deposit 10c in their bank account. They then have to check their bank statement at an ATM, bank or the internet two to three days later. They will get a five digit numerical code on their statement. They then need to log into Pocit again and enter the code to transfer the money from the bank account to Pocit and then to pay the political party of their choice.
“This is a security measure similar to that used by Pay Pal, e-bay and Worldpay.”
Once the voter has paid he or she automatically receives a link to the political party logo which they can use for wallpaper for their phone and they can download the party anthem as a ring-tone, if it has been supplied to Pocit. Or in the case of Inkatha, a message from IFP president Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
The African National Congress, treasurer-general Mathews Phosa was the first political party leader to agree to sign-up Pocit, although the party has still not signed its contract. The Congress of the People was next and went live with the application on 13 December when several hundred voters sent a request to 39621 to pay. Krantz said there was “early confusion when some thought that it was a premium based service and that merely by sending the sms, they were paying. Our call centre operatives phoned some back and explained they had download www.pocit.mobi and register to pay.”
The process is secret and the names and amounts of those who donate cannot and will not be revealed. An independent agency is being contracted to do an independent audit of the process and each political party will receive a report after the election from Pocit.
Patricia de Lille, Independent Democrat Party leader was next to sign up and the ID went live on 15 December. Inkatha Freedom Party’s application goes live today 17 December. Patricia de Lille said, “we are thrilled to be able to use this application to boost fundraising efforts, it is going to be a very expensive election and this well help level the playing field to some extent.” Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi of the IFP said his party had used sms alerts for their supporters, “but this allows us to fundraise, give supporters our logo for their phones and a message encouraging them to vote, all at no cost to us.”
