ANALYSIS: SA voters will go to 2019 elections none the wiser about who funds political parties By Rebecca Davis becsplanb
Laws in South Africa take a long time to make and sometimes even longer to implement. The Political Party Funding Act is no exception.
This is real progress – on one of the few issues that political parties across the board have previously been united in apparent foot-dragging when it comes to putting lofty principles into action.Forget having access to political parties’ balance sheets before the May elections. In fact, it sounds like South Africans will be lucky to have the act fully in effect before the 2024 elections.
Implementing the new funding act will undoubtedly place a strain on the Electoral Commission in terms of both funding and human resources. It will be important in the years immediately ahead to keep a close eye on the Electoral Commission’s funding allocation, lest squeezing the commission financially becomes a political manoeuvre to delay the implementation of the funding act further.
. It still allows donations below R100,000 to remain anonymous and undisclosed, which could be a loophole for donors to simply make multiple donations of less than R100,000 through different channels. It still permits a political party to receive a donation of as much as R15-million from a single entity, although it will have to be disclosed.
Because the act cannot be enforced retrospectively, information about where local parties have been getting their money in the past will remain the secret of those in the know.
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