Pays for penalties imposed on African party (8)
I believe the answer is:
finances
'pays' is the definition.
(financing is a kind of paying)
'penalties imposed on african party' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'african party' could be 'anc' (African National Congress, South African party) and 'anc' is found within the answer.
'penalties' could be 'fines' (fine is a kind of penalty) and 'fines' is present in the leftover letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'for' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for finances that I've seen before include "Assets in the form of money" , "Provides the capital" , "Provides money for" , "Furnishes with money" , "Monetary resources" .)