extremely difficult for political parties to secure ‘sufficient funding within Zimbabwe to purchase the necessary equipment and to develop rational policies’. The MDC though accepts that there needs to be some control on foreign funding lest a political party is bribed into adopting a foreign agenda which is not in the interests of the Zimbabwean people26. At the time the new law was enacted, the MDC believed that the ZANU (PF) government, then, banned foreign funding of political parties in a move that was aimed at hampering its growth as a young political party. The other side of the coin could be that ZANU (PF)’s intention was to limit perceived influence and interference in the domestic affairs of Zimbabwe through, inter alia, financial and material support to the opposition by perceived enemies of Zimbabwe, who were allegedly pursuing the regime change agenda in Zimbabwe27. The issue remains contentious and perhaps requires further consideration by all stakeholders, with a view to arriving at a consensus. A consensus though appears at this stage to be very unlikely. 4.0. Public Funding of Political Parties in Zimbabwe 4.1. Background and Context Public funding of political parties was introduced in Zimbabwe in 1992, with the enactment of the Political Parties (Finance) Act [Chapter 2:04] of 1992. Prior to that, political parties had to mobilise their entire funding privately. Political parties had to raise funds through membership dues and contributions, donations (in cash and kind by well-wishers), investments, fund raising activities, loans, etc. Generally, these would determine the financial strength of the party, which in turn often determined the overall strength of the party. Of course, as we will discuss further below, the ruling party had relatively easy access to State resources to finance its activities and election campaigns. The Act provided for State funding of political parties which held a minimum of 15 seats in a 120 seat Parliament (or 12% of the seats). According to the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, when introducing the new law in Parliament, the purpose of the law was to make provision for the State to finance political parties which were represented in Parliament. The law was intended to “facilitate those political parties who will have demonstrated to the electorate that they are a serious party by winning at least 12% seats in a 26 Ibid. See also contributions by MDC members of Parliament when debating the Second Reading of the Political Parties (Finance) Bill, Parliamentary Debates Volume 27, No. 60, 3 April 2001, 6494. 27 ZANU (PF) has accused mainly Britain and the United States of America of meddling in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe and peddling the regime change agenda. 11