A non-profit organization called My Vote Counts has taken the IEC to court over the PPFA. The IEC is worried that this legal dispute will affect its ability to prepare for the 2024 elections. The PPFA is a law that regulates how political parties are funded.
The PPFA came into effect in April 2021 and its purpose is to make it clear where political parties get their money from.
My Vote Counts is asking the court to change the PPFA so that political parties have to reveal all private donations, not just the ones over R100,000; lower the maximum amount of R15m that a donor can give in a year; show how they spend the private money they get; and prevent donors from using their relatives or associates to give more money than the limit.
The organization argued that the IEC did not have any data or analysis to support the R100,000 and R15m limits.
“These limits prevent the PPFA from fulfilling its constitutional goals of improving democracy and ensuring transparency, openness, and accountability.
“Without full transparency and full disclosure of private donations to political parties voters are unable to properly assess the influence exerted by private interests over political parties and cast an informed vote,” it said.
The R15m “leaves the door open to political parties being bandaged to the dictates of private interests”.
The IEC’s party funding head George Mahlangu told eNCA that the court case will make it harder for them to get ready for the elections.
“This is not going to be easy. Political parties will try to fight this, or try to raise the R100,000 limit.
“If the main challenge takes too long, until late 2023, it will affect [how we] get ready for the elections. We hope those who are unhappy with this law would [speak up] and do it soon so we can know how much time we have to get ready for these elections,” he said.
“If the Electoral Amendment Act is not done, it will affect how we fund political parties. This Act gives money to political parties in national and provincial parliaments. We need to go into the
The IEC gave the ANC and other political parties a warning this week because they did not send their financial statements for direct funding by September 30, 2022.
Political parties have to send financial statements that are checked by auditors by September 30 every year. They need to send two kinds of statements: one for the money they get and one for where they get the money from, such as donations, fees from members, charges, and other income.
“Out of 41 parties, 24 submitted financial statements by the September 30 2022 deadline, while 17 submitted later. Among represented parties, 11 out of 15 met the Act’s requirements by submitting audited financial statements, resulting in a commendable 73% compliance rate,” said the IEC.
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