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The Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) has indicated that it would continue to withhold over R15 million in financial quarterly disbursements belonging to three political parties represented in Parliament due to their failure to produce financial statements to the commission as required by the law.
The IEC revealed that it was withholding R6 946 664.51 from the African Independence Congress (AIC), R6 038 810. 45 from the National Freedom Party (NFP) and R2 237 599.76 from The Congress of the People (Cope) after the three parties failed to comply with the Party Funding Act, which required that they account for disbursements through the provision of financial statements.
This came as the commission was publishing the fourth quarter disclosure report in terms of the Political Funding Act for the 2022/23 financial year.
READ: Political parties declare over R60 million in donations
Parties risk losing money permanently
The IEC warned that the three parties risked losing the funds, which were part of the funding from the Represented Political Parties Fund (RPPF) and the Multi Party Democracy Fund.
"The prescripts provide for the forfeiture of such funds only after the end of the political term of office, particularly if a party fails to retain or gain any seats in either the provincial or national legislature," the commission said.
NFP secretary-general Canaan Mdletshe said the party, whose divisions have seen two parallel factions claiming legitimacy, was aware that it risked over R6 million if it did not get its act together and comply with the act.
Mdletshe stated:
Cope national spokesperson Dennis Bloem blamed administrative problems for the non-compliance, which he said the party was trying to address.
Bloem said:
Who's funding who?
With a total of R5 985 983.83 in declared donations by three political parties in the quarter in review, ActionSA accounted for most of the donations at R3 730 000, while the ANC and the DA respectively disclosed R1 996 880 and R259 103,83.
READ: IEC pleads for funding to sustain a multi-party fund
ActionSA's donations were received from three individual donors, with the party's repeat donor Martin Moshal supplying the lion's share of the donation at R3.5 million, while the other two, Dr BB Mabizela and Chris Du Toit, donated R105 000 and R125 000, respectively.
Moshal has previously donated R11 million to ActionSA, which has been among the political parties with the most donations among those who made declarations.
For the ANC, two donations were from two entities, the Ichikowitz Family Foundation, a Johannesburg-based entity, which donated R1.5 million and the Education and Training Unit for Democracy and Development (ETU), which made an in-kind donation of R496 880 to the governing party by paying for the printing costs of its national policy conference discussion documents.
The ANC has been directed by the IEC to give written reasons why the declaration from ETU was declared late, as the commission indicated that the donation had been received in the third quarter, in which it had to be declared.
READ: EFF declares donations for the first time
The DA's declarations were from two of its repeat donors, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF), which made an in-kind donation of R139 103,83, and the Polyoak Packaging, which donated R120 000 to the official opposition.
With the latest declarations representing the final instalment for the 2022/23 financial year, the IEC has placed the unaudited amount of direct donations to political parties to approximately R134 million, which was marginally shorter than the audited R145 million in the previous financial year.
