Symposium thrashes out solutions to strengthening political funding law
Just last month, Parliament decided to double the annual limit for receiving private funding to R30 million a year.
Day 2 of the IEC's Symposium on Political Funding in South Africa. Picture: IEC
CAPE TOWN -The influence of donor funding on the country’s political landscape is one of the public concerns under discussion at a symposium on political funding underway in Durban.
The symposium aims to put forward proposals to Parliament on how to strengthen the political funding law that is still under regular contestation from civil society groups.
Just last month, Parliament decided to double the annual limit for receiving private funding to R30 million a year.
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As the oversight body for the declaration of donor funding, the vice chairperson Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), Janet Love, said ahead of next year's local government elections, concerns have been raised that the Political Party Funding Act does not cover parties that only contest at local level.
Seventy percent of respondents in a Human Sciences Research Council study said they were worried about the transactional nature of politics and capture by the elite who fund political parties.
Love said the income of political parties and not their expenditure, has until now dominated the discourse on political funding.
"The expenditure in campaigns, which has a more immediate effect on enabling a level playing field on the one hand and a more important impact on election outcomes is not the focus at the present."
Love said despite political parties being required to submit regular reports on their funding sources, there are shortcomings in monitoring and investigating compliance as well as enforcement of the law.