Cope, AIC and NFP fail to declare financial statements to the IEC

• Only 41 of the 515 parties registered with the IEC made declarations during the 2021/2022 financial year. 
• In total, they declared R145.4 million. 
• Three parties, Cope, AIC, and the NFP, failed to submit their financial statements to the IEC. 

In accordance with the Political Party Funding Act of the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC), a total of R145.4 million was disclosed by 41 of the country’s 515 registered political parties for the 2021/2022 financial year.

Of this amount, R137.3 million was monetary donations to the parties, while R8.1 was in-kind donations.

Of the 15 political parties represented in the National Assembly and the provincial legislatures, three parties, Cope, AIC, and the NFP, failed to submit their financial statements to the IEC.

This has led the IEC to withhold the parties’ share of the representative political party funding and the multiparty democracy fund allocated to parties represented in the various legislative assemblies.

IEC chairperson, Mosotho Moepya, gave a breakdown of the political party funding annual report on Tuesday at the commission’s headquarters in Centurion, Gauteng.

He said: 

Legislatively, the deadline for submission of audited annual financial statements by political parties is 30 September each year.

Moepya said represented political parties had been required to submit two sets of financial statements together with the auditor’s opinion form before 30 September 2022.

One set of financial statements would be in respect of how represented parties spent their share of the represented political party fund and the multiparty democracy fund, while the other would be in respect of direct funding to parties, in the form of direct donations, membership fees, levies, and any other income.

“Unrepresented parties were required to submit only one set of financial statements in respect of direct funding together with the auditors’ opinion,” said Moepya.

Among the represented political parties, 11 of the 15 submitted audited financial statements as required by the act, making it a considerable 73% submission compliance rate.

IEC chief executive for party funding, George Mahlangu, said the PAC was initially among those who had not submitted their financial statements but has since rectified this.