Opposition political parties have reacted with scepticism to the ANC's announcement that its investment arm, Chancellor House, plans to sell its controversial 25 percent stake in Hitachi Power Africa.
ANC treasurer, Mathews Phosa, said Chancellor House had been instructed to sell its stake two weeks ago.
Phosa yesterday told the Daily News that the governing party was, for the first time, developing a comprehensive system to regulate political party funding.
He said the ANC held a meeting of 45 regional treasurers in Johannesburg on Friday to debate party funding. A final paper would be tabled at the party's national general council in Durban in September.
Phosa denied the decision to sell Chancellor House's stake in Hitachi Power Africa had anything to do with the World Bank's $3.7 billion (R27bn) loan to Eskom.
Chancellor House stood to profit after the power utility awarded a multibillion contract to Hitachi to supply boilers for its new Medupi power station.
Phosa said the ANC had expressed "discomfort" over the Chancellor House stake in Hitachi since the party's Polokwane conference.
"Before the Polokwane conference Chancellor House was boiling. That is why I said then that we should exit Hitachi. It has been a long process to disinvest, but we hope to conclude the exiting process within six months," Phosa said.
ID chief whip, Lance Greyling, said the decision to divest from Hitachi "will have to be seen to be believed".
"This is not the first time we have heard such a promise from Phosa, but this time around the ANC is under far more pressure to do the right thing," Greyling said.
DA energy spokesman, Sejamothopo Motau, said the decision showed the ANC was acknowledging "it is improper... to benefit from government business when it controls the decision-making process".