In Other News - Regulating Political Money

Inside The IEC's Landmark Symposium On Party Funding In South Africa

By Jessie Taylor

In June 2025, four years after the implementation of the Political Party Funding Act, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) held its first-ever Symposium on Political Funding in South Africa - an event that marked a significant turning point in the country’s efforts to protect the integrity of its democratic processes.

Hosted in uMhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal, the two-day gathering brought together political parties, legal experts, civil society organisations, the media, academia, and regulators to take stock of the existing political funding framework. At the heart of the discussions was a single pressing question: Is South Africa’s democracy being adequately safeguarded against money’s influence in politics?

A Milestone In Transparency

The Political Party Funding Act (PPFA), passed in 2018 and enforced from April 2021, was hailed as a milestone in transparency.

It requires parties to disclose donations above R100 000 and prohibits donations from foreign governments or state-owned enterprises. The Act also created the Represented Political Parties Fund and the Multiparty Democracy Fund, designed to channel public and private funding into parties transparently. IEC Chairperson Mosotho Moepya opened the symposium by acknowledging the legislation’s progress while highlighting its limits. “The aim is not merely to fund political parties, but to ensure that such funding does not erode the foundations of our democracy,” he stated.

One of the symposium’s key themes was the growing public distrust in political institutions, much of which stems from perceived opacity in political financing.

According to research by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), over 70% of South Africans believe politics has become more transactional, with donors allegedly receiving favours in exchange for financial contributions. This sentiment reflects a dangerous trend: where political influence is bought, democratic participation is undermined.

IEC Vice Chairperson Janet Love said: “The concern is not just about disclosure. It concerns the broader perception of elite capture and whether money has overtaken mandate.”

The Symposium Unpacked Several Flaws In The Current System:

• Limited scope of the Act: The PPFA currently applies only to parties contesting provincial and national elections. Parties operating exclusively at the municipal level are not subject to the same disclosure requirements, leaving a significant gap, particularly as local politics becomes more competitive. This loophole allows local parties and independents to receive substantial contributions without transparency or oversight.

• Expenditure remains unregulated: While the Act focuses on income transparency, requiring declaration of donations above a certain threshold, it does not track how political parties spend those funds.

• Enforcement is lacking: The IEC’s powers of enforcement remain limited. Despite some parties failing to meet the Act’s obligations, penalties have been minimal or inconsistently applied. Civil society watchdogs, including My Vote Counts and the Open Secrets collective, emphasised stronger sanctions for non-compliance, suggesting the Act lacks “teeth” to ensure accountability.

• Data transparency needs a tech upgrade: Participants also noted that political funding disclosures, while technically available, are often buried in poorly structured PDFs, hindering public engagement. There were calls for the IEC to develop open-data platforms that make donation records machine-readable, accessible, and searchable, enhancing the ability of media and citizens to track trends and scrutinise transactions.

In the lead-up to the symposium, Parliament approved a controversial amendment to increase the annual donation cap from R15 million to R30 million per donor, per party. While this move was justified as a way to help political parties sustain operations, civil society organisations and several political analysts condemned it as a regression in funding regulation.

By the close of the event, the IEC and participating stakeholders proposed several concrete actions:

• Amend the PPFA to include municipal-level parties and independents.

• Introduce expenditure reporting alongside income disclosure.

• Establish firm enforcement mechanisms and scale up the IEC’s regulatory capacity.

• Create a digital political finance transparency platform using open data standards.

• Review the R30 million cap and consider the impact on donor concentration.

• Public education campaigns to raise voter awareness on party finance.

With the next municipal elections due in 2026, the symposium underscored that timely reform is essential. If the current loopholes remain unaddressed, municipal contests may see increased abuse of unregulated local financing, undermining the vote’s credibility and disadvantaging less-resourced candidates. The 2026 poll will serve as a critical test of South Africa’s resolve to uphold electoral fairness and protect the integrity of local democracy.

The event also reaffirmed the importance of civil society organisations, many of whom were instrumental in advocating for the initial Political Party Funding Act. Groups like the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) and My Vote Counts pledged to continue their watchdog role and called for increased support to amplify their monitoring work.

The IEC’s inaugural Symposium on Political Funding has laid bare the urgency of reform. While South Africa has made notable progress since the Act’s implementation, the system still permits too many blind spots, particularly at the local level and within party expenditures.

If Parliament, the IEC, political parties, and civil society can act on the recommendations, South Africa could once again become a continental leader in transparent, fair, and democratic political financing.

As the country continues to evolve in its multiparty landscape, ensuring that money does not distort democracy must remain a top priority.

The symposium may well be remembered as a crucial inflexion point—a moment when South Africa recommitted itself to the democratic principles enshrined in its Constitution, by demanding integrity at the ballot box and in the bankbooks behind it.

Source: SANEF | Eyewitness News | IEC South Africa | HSRC | AllAfrica