By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has unveiled plans to inject an additional R1.1 billion into political party funding over the Medium-Term.
Speaking at the Electoral Commission’s (IEC) Political Party Funding Symposium in Durban, Godongwana acknowledged that the current economic climate and lower revenue collection present challenges to establishing a common funding pool for political contestants.
Godongwana highlighted that R3 billion has been provided to political parties since 2011/12, aiming to help smaller or newer parties compete with more established, privately funded ones.
“He said a young democracy like South Africa relies on strong and independent institutions for its longevity and legitimacy.
“These institutions are key to maintaining the checks and balances that are the backbone of any democracy.”
Godongwana said another equally important component is competitive elections by political parties that are not beholden to private interests and should therefore be publicly funded.
“Political funding in South Africa has historically been opaque, with little regulation or public disclosure until recent years,” he said, adding that for much of the democratic era, political parties were not legally required to reveal their sources of private funding.
“This raised concern about corruption, undue influence, and lack of accountability.
The Minister noted the historical opaqueness of political funding in South Africa, which only began to shift with the Political Party Funding Act (PPFA) of 2018, effective April 1, 2021.
“The implementation of the PPFA has in some measure led to a significant drop in private funding for many political parties, making it challenging for them to meet operational costs. There are other pitfalls to the PPFA that ‘we must be honest about and work hard to overcome.
The Minister said despite these advances, challenges remain in enforcement, local transparency and curbing illicit financing.
“As National Treasury and government as a whole, we must commit to improving transparency and oversight of political finance to prevent abuse by illicit networks.”
The Minister said good progress has been made in the course to remove South Africa from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list.
“We have made good progress, as seen in our most update from FATF on our journey to being removed from the grey list, where our reforms to resolve systemic weaknesses in anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing, and to root the links with political party funding have been recognised.”
For the forthcoming local government elections, Godongwana announced an allocation of R885 million for the IEC and R550 million for the South African Police Service (SAPS) and South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to maintain public order.
Godongwana said the ability to hold free and fair elections is a vital feature of any democracy, encompassing both procedural (periodic elections) and substantive (freeness and fairness) aspects.
“As custodians of the fiscus, we ensure IEC funding for successful elections. You are all aware of announcement I made in the much-contested 2025 Budget Speech on funds allocated to the IEC for the hosting of the upcoming local government elections.