Billionaire philanthropist Martin Moshal has donated a further R9 million this year to Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA political party, after donating R20 million to the party in the past three years.
This is according to the latest funding declarations report from the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).
The IEC said the Durban-born Moshal, who has a stake in Betway, donated R3 million in January, R2 million in February and another R4 million in March.
ActionSA is the only party he has donated to this year.
In the past, the Australia-based billionaire businessman with business interests in the tech space, has donated around R59.5 million to various political parties between April 2021 and December 2023.
Moshal donated R35 million to the Democratic Alliance (DA), R4 million to Mmusi Maimane’s Build One South Africa (BOSA) and R20.5 million to ActionSA, the IEC revealed in March.
Moshal lives in Camp Cove, a bay on the southern side of Port Jackson, Sydney harbour in Australia, has concentrated his donations to ActionSA only in 2024.
Who is Martin Moshal?
According to his biography on the Moshal Programme website, he is an entrepreneur and co-founder of Entrée Capital, which invests in numerous technology companies and in business innovation worldwide.
He is also an active investor in leading real estate, technology and startup projects. Moshal studied Business Science at the University of Cape Town.
But he also has links with Israel, as he holds an honorary doctorate from the Technion in Haifa and an honorary fellowship from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
His educational programme, since 2010, has been funding students in higher education in South Africa and in Israel.
“We are a global organisation operating in South Africa and Israel, working for social change, providing thousands of young people from challenging, disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds with an unparalleled opportunity to turn their lives around through higher education,” the programme says on its website.
It was founded by Moshal and Yael Lavie, an Israeli executive with extensive experience in the worlds of finance and real estate, who currently serves as chairperson of the Moshal Program and of Bar-Lev Hi-Tech Park.
Moshal’s wealth is largely unknown, but according to an expose done by British Newspaper Daily Mail, he does own some, if not a large majority of gambling giant Betway.
The newspaper back in 2020 conducted an investigation into the offshore ownership of Betway’s structure.
The UK-based journalists traced Moshal’s ownership back to offshore trusts.
The report further noted that the owners of Betway are hidden behind shell companies in Guernsey, Malta and the British Virgin Islands.
On his foundation’s website, Moshal is described as an entrepreneur and co-founder of Entrée Capital.
Entrée Capital invests in various technology and business innovation companies across the globe.
The company manages around $1.25 billion across a number of funds and has offices in Tel Aviv, London, and New York.
While Moshal is based in Sydney, he at one point owned a seven-bedroom mansion in Hampstead in the UK. The home was estimated to be valued at around £7.8 million in 2020.
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