Gaddafi Gives Anc Millions: Report

Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi has donated millions of pounds to a "secret election campaign fund" run by President Nelson Mandela to allow the African National Congress to win the June 2 election, the British Sunday Telegraph reported on Sunday.

According to SABC radio news reports, figures compiled by Greg Mills of the South African Institute for International Affairs revealed that the ANC had received more than 112 million pounds in overseas funding from what Mills said was "questionable sources".

ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama dismissed the Telegraph report as a "smear campaign" against the ANC and "whoever is making the claims... has got a sinister motive".

The ANC could not say whether it had received money from Gaddafi or not, but there was nothing wrong if it had. "Like all other political parties, the ANC receives donations," Ngonyama said.

Parties such as the Democratic Party and the United Democratic Movement received funds from "countries such as the United States, but no-one has ever queried this", he said.

The Sunday Telegraph report was a "continuation of the British media trying to choose friends for the ANC", Smuts said.