CAPE TOWN, Thursday 27 August 2026 — The Electoral Court has found GOOD and its secretary-general, Brett Herron, in breach of political funding law over an undeclared R900,000 payment for campaign material, imposing penalties weeks before Herron contests the Cape Town mayoralty on a joint GOOD-Rise Mzansi ticket.
The court ruled on Wednesday that the R900,000 payment made by Electrox Properties towards T-shirts and other material used by GOOD during the 2021 local government election campaign constituted a political donation that should have been disclosed.
GOOD has rejected the judgment and said it will seek leave to appeal.
The case arose from campaign material supplied to the party by Kairos Communications ahead of the 2021 municipal elections.
According to the court proceedings, Kairos invoiced GOOD approximately R1.97 million for the material. Electrox Properties subsequently paid R900,000 towards that account in September 2021.
The payment was not disclosed to the Electoral Commission as a political donation and was not reflected as such in GOOD’s annual financial statements.
The Political Party Funding Act requires political parties to disclose donations above the prescribed threshold.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa ultimately approached the Electoral Court over the payment.
GOOD disputed that it had received an undisclosed donation and argued that the transaction involving Electrox was separate from the party.
Judge Leicester Adams rejected that explanation, finding that GOOD’s evidence did not satisfactorily explain how the R900,000 worth of campaign material had otherwise been paid for.
The court imposed a R50,000 administrative penalty on GOOD and ordered the party and Herron jointly to pay a further R40,000.
Electrox Properties was separately fined R40,000, while company director Elias Maponya was ordered to pay another R40,000.
Herron said on Thursday that GOOD would challenge the judgment.
He argued that the Electoral Court had reached its decision without hearing oral argument or evidence and said the party believed errors had been made in determining the case.
The original complaint was lodged with the IEC in 2023 by former GOOD national organiser Shaun August.
August was subsequently expelled from GOOD and is now a DA councillor in Cape Town.
GOOD has questioned his credibility and described him as a disgruntled former official, while August has maintained that he reported the transaction because he believed the party had failed to comply with funding disclosure requirements.
The timing gives the judgment additional electoral significance.
Herron is the joint GOOD-Rise Mzansi candidate for mayor of Cape Town in the 4 November local government elections, placing the party’s accounting officer and mayoral candidate directly at the centre of the funding dispute.
GOOD was founded by Patricia de Lille after her departure from the DA and has established its strongest electoral presence in the Western Cape.
The party and Rise Mzansi announced an electoral partnership earlier in the municipal campaign, with Herron selected to challenge for the Cape Town mayoralty.
The Electoral Court ruling does not prevent GOOD or Herron from contesting the election, and the party’s planned appeal means the legal dispute may continue during the campaign.
It does, however, place political funding compliance directly into the Cape Town contest at a time when parties are completing their candidate submissions to the IEC.
Political parties and independent candidates have until 17:00 on Friday, 28 August to submit their final nominations for November’s elections.
The next significant development will be whether GOOD obtains leave to appeal and whether the Electoral Court judgment remains operative while that process continues.
