receiving any foreign donation, whether directly from the donor or indirectly through a third person40. The Act also prohibits citizens of foreign countries domiciled in a country other than Zimbabwe from, within Zimbabwe, soliciting donations from the public on behalf of any political party or candidate41. The need to prohibit foreign funding of political parties was one of the main reasons, if not the main reason, for repealing the old Act and replacing it with a new one42. The reason advanced for this is that the sovereignty of the State must be safeguarded and that its government must not be undermined. As the Minister of Justice put it: Foreign donations usually come with foreign interests and strings attached. Generally the agenda of foreign donors to political parties are at the best unknown and at the worst inimical to the interest of the country. It is in the interest of the State to guard its sovereignty jealously.43 Masunungure suggests that the prohibition of foreign funding “appears to have hurt all parties, big and small”. He notes that both ZANU (PF) and the MDC have in the past received significant foreign donations44. While it is true that both ZANU (PF) and the MDC had prior to the prohibition of foreign funding have been beneficiaries of such foreign funding, both parties have not ceased accessing foreign funding on account of the prohibition. It remains very likely that both remain recipients of foreign funding and other support, now only being covert recipients than the overt recipients they were prior to the prohibition. Lastly, section 8 of the Act provides that the Minister of Justice may prescribe by regulations, among other things: • the form and manner in which records of donations shall be kept by political parties; and 40 Section 6(1) of the Act. In terms of section 6(2) of the Act, any donation accepted by a member of a political party shall be deemed to have been accepted by the political party, unless the member wilfully fails to disclose such donation to the political party, in which case the candidate shall be personally liable for the offence. Further, section 6(4) of the Act provides that a political party, member of a political party or candidate shall be deemed not to have accepted a donation in contravention of the Act if, within thirty days of receiving the donation, the party, member or candidate returns the donation to the donor. 41 Section 7 of the Act. 42 In his Second Reading speech the Minister of Justice said, inter alia, that “[t]he Political Parties (Finance) Act which was enacted by Parliament in 1992, has been found to be inadequate in that it does not provide for fundamental issues such as … prohibition of political parties or candidates from receiving foreign donations” – see Parliamentary Debates Volume 27, No. 60, op cit, 6495. 43 Parliamentary Debates Volume 27, No. 60, op cit, 6495-6. 44 Masunungure, op cit, p.24. 16