Funding dries up for political parties

It's been a dry season for political parties, with only the Democratic Alliance benefiting significantly from external funding between July and September.

As calls mount from civil society groups for greater transparency over political funding, new limits that came into effect during this reporting period now only require political parties to declare donations greater than two hundred thousand rand.

Besides the DA, only the ANC, ActionSA, and the IFP declared donations over the threshold, while Bosa declared a donation under the limit.

But both the ANC and IFP may have fallen foul of the rules.

A total amount of only R2.4 million has been declared by the four political parties in the three months of the second quarter, half of this by the Democratic Alliance.

It received half a million rand from a Mr. W le Roux, and an in-kind and monetary donation of more than R300,000 from a regular donor, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

Meanwhile, ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba continues to prop up his own party, making two donations adding up to R470,000.

READ: DA, ANC, ActionSA only parties to receive donations in Q1

The ANC only declared a single in-kind donation from the education and training unit of R358,000 to cover accommodation and conference costs for trainers preparing for the national dialogue, local government election activities, and next week’s national general council.

However, the declaration was made a day late, and the electoral commission has ordered the party to explain why it missed the deadline.

The Electoral Commission is also probing one of two donations declared by the IFP, over concerns that it may be considered foreign funding.

This is for an amount of R186,726 donated by the Westminster Foundation for democracy.

The IFP also received workshop-related accommodation and conference expenses valued at R169,830.

This reporting period has been among the lowest recorded since political parties have been required to declare their private funding sources.