Political funding law needs more work, says IEC boss
The ANC has found an ally in its push to send the Political Party Funding Act back to parliament for amendments — the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
The commission’s CEO, Sy Mamabolo, told the Sunday Times recently that the IEC broadly supported the act but there was room for improvement, particularly regarding the requirement that donations above R100,000 to any party should be declared.
This provision was also raised as problematic by ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile last month, when he said in an interview with the Sunday Times that in its current form the act was a threat to the survival of the political parties in parliament.
The legislation has already been enacted by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who nowonly needs to announce its implementation date.
Mamabolo agreed with Mashatile’s view, saying the act represented “a good start” in regulating party-political funding but needed to be refined.
The IEC chief said such legislation was long overdue, because South African politics needed to be protected from undue influence, foreign or local.
“We as the electoral commission support the broad principles that are embodied in the act,” Mamabolo said.
“We believe that South African democracy is too precious a national project to leave it to the whims of international donors.
“So, as a country we must look after our own political destiny which should not be determined via external influences.”
The IECwas ready to play its part as soon as Ramaphosa announced the commencement date of the act.
Mamabolo said the commission agreed
that taxpayers must fund political parties to safeguard the sovereignty of the country.
But some areas needed to be worked on to avoid possible confusion, one of them being the provision that donations of more than R100,000 must be declared by both the donor and the political party that receives it.
“Should [the figure] be bigger? Should it be smaller? That is an issue that requires consideration,” he said.
It was also unclear if the R100,000 level applied only to cash donations.
“Should the act be dealing with donations such as if you are a member of a party and you provide sandwiches for a branch meeting and so on, that is a donation in kind?” asked Mamabolo.
“But if you provide that to several branches and annually it aggregates to R100,000 then it has got to be declared.”
He said the legislation was ambiguous on what criteria the IEC should use when donors applied to it for anonymity.
“The act is not clear as to what factors to consider in determining an application of that nature, so it might be that we have to clarify what factors must be taken into account in arriving at the decision on an application for anonymity,” he said.
But the main problem with the act was that it was promulgated before the Constitutional Court ruling in June that independent candidates can now stand in general elections. The court gave parliament a two-year deadline to pass the necessary amendments to the Electoral Act.
Mamabolo said the IEC was advising parliament on the matter, but feared the time given was too short.
“We have some anxiety about the time because from the moment parliament finalises the options, we need at least 24 months to an election so that we can rewrite business applications, rewrite our training material and so on to accord with whatever system that parliament eventually adopts,” he said.
“We have looked at the different options and what they would mean for us and the country. We are looking into the issue internally through our elections management committee.
“For instance, let us say there is going to be a constituency at a provincial level and another at a national level, as well as proportional representation … It would mean two ballots for provincial and two ballots for national, and the question is, will an average voter be able to handle that competently?”