Some of the SADC countries already have some form of regulation in respect of the above issues. For instance, the law in Namibia requires that private funds received must be disclosed. In the DRC, political parties must disclose property ownership to the Minister of Home Affairs, as well as any donations or bequests. Political parties must also submit annual financial accounts to the Minister of Home Affairs. The Political Parties Act of Tanzania requires parties to disclose all funds received from outside the country and to submit annual audited accounts of funds and property. Political parties in Zambia may be required by the Registrar of Societies to submit their financial accounts for inspection at any time. We have noted above that in Zimbabwe, the Political Parties (Finance) Act provides that the Minister of Justice may prescribe, by regulations, the form and manner in which records of donations shall be kept by political parties and the keeping by political parties of proper books of accounts, the audit of the accounts of political parties, and the form, content and publication of statements of accounts by political parties. However, the Minister of Justice has not done so66. 4.6. Use of State Resources (Media, etc) Onuoha observes, in the case of Nigeria in the early 90s and before, that: … So far, multiparty democracy revolves around the political class, who in turn confiscate and subordinate the Nigerian state. Accordingly, any of the political factions in power usually takes over the state. Therefore, it will be no surprise that in any multiparty democratic exercise, the political class uses the instruments of the state to advance its advantages in party organisation, campaign and elections. It also includes advantages of financial sufficiency…67 While Onuoha made the observation in respect of Nigeria in the early 90s and before, it rings true in many other countries today. As Masunungure puts it, in many African countries “elections are not really contests between candidates and parties; they turn out, in effect, to be contests between all opposition parties [and] candidates on the one hand, and the governing party’s candidates and the state on the other”68. 66 Surprisingly, when the law on public funding of political parties was first introduced in Zimbabwe, it was members of Parliament from the then ruling ZANU (PF) who suggested that the funds must be accounted for by the recipients. See for instance Parliamentary Debates Volume 19, No. 20, op cit, 1309, 1312, 1313 and 1314. 67 Onuoha, op cit, p.24. 68 Masunungure, op cit, p.22. 26