Ka-ching. Ka-ching. That’s the sound of political parties raking in cash in the absence of any regulations governing party funding — a nifty party trick brought to you by your friendly ANC. Who cares if anonymous donors can throw bags of money at their favourite political parties? What’s a little influence peddling between friends, after all?
The money-go-round is in no danger of winding down soon, either. Some fancy legislative footwork by the ANC means there’s probably at least six months before the president plugs a glaring hole in the country’s political party funding legislation. Just enough time for donors to fund a final pre-election push, in other words, and then to top up depleted party coffers after the poll. It’s particularly helpful if you are, say, a broke party facing its most bruising electoral battle yet.
It’s no accident that South Africa finds itself in this quagmire; it speaks to a ruling party that’s abused its parliamentary majority in jimmying open new avenues of income in legislation.
Here’s how it’s worked. With independent candidates standing in this year’s election for the first time, legislation had to be updated to match the changed political landscape. The Electoral Matters Amendment Bill (EMAB) was designed to amend various pieces of legislation to make provision for independents. Among these was the Political Party Funding Act (PPFA) — a law designed to bring transparency to party funding.
Now, under the PPFA regulations, parties must disclose all donations of R100,000 or more, and donations from any one entity are limited to R15m a year. The law, which was introduced in the wake of state capture revelations, aims to combat corruption and clamp down on the undue influence of private interests in politics through disclosure and transparency.
Of course, the ANC has never been particularly enamoured of its own legislation. Though parliament passed the party funding bill in 2018 and President Cyril Ramaphosa signed it in 2019, it was only in 2021 — under threat of legal action — that it was grudgingly put into effect. And within a year the ruling party was already considering adjusting the limits upwards — or scrapping the R15m limit in its entirety.
Now the EMAB has offered the opportunity for the ruling party to do this by legislative chicanery. Instead of just making provision for independent candidates, home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi tacked on various other provisions to the bill, like changing the funding formula from the Represented Political Parties Fund to the benefit of the ANC. And tinkering with how funding caps are legislated.
The upshot is that the new legislation effectively scrapped the old regulations around party funding limits without putting new ones in place. Until such time as that lacuna is filled, anything goes.
Ramaphosa dutifully signed the bill and in short order ensured it was put into effect. Which means a funding free-for-all since May 8. And counting
The ANC can’t claim it didn’t see this coming. As public interest organisation My Vote Counts (MVC) notes, parliament and the presidency simply ignored warnings from civil society organisations and opposition parties about the flaws in the EMAB.
In February, it notes, a parliamentary legal adviser flagged concerns around whether there had been sufficient public participation in the rushed process. She cautioned that the inclusion of “unnecessary and controversial changes” could open the door to legal challenges, the Parliamentary Monitoring Group reports.
A month later MVC petitioned Ramaphosa to send the bill back to parliament to address its flaws and in April, 10 opposition parties did the same.
Ramaphosa’s own national anti-corruption advisory council raised concerns about the impact the law would have on transparency, urging him to hold back the provisions related to party funding.
Then, early this month, at a special meeting of the National Assembly programming committee, advocate Charmaine van der Merwe warned that there would be a gap in the legislation once the president assented to the EMAB, News24 reports. There would, in other words, be no limits on donations and disclosures.
Knowing all this, Ramaphosa dutifully signed the bill and in short order ensured it was put into effect. Which means a funding free-for-all since May 8. And counting.
Unsurprisingly, the ANC in parliament has shown little to no interest in remedying the, um, oversight. At first it seemed game, tabling a motion under the order of business that would see the current limits remain in place. Then it kicked the can down the road for a week for further “consultation”.
A week down the line, it had got so far as to resolve that “the task of making regulations requires time”. So, as News24 tells it, parliament decided that the president must on an “urgent basis” make regulations for the disclosure threshold and donation limit. Not urgent-urgent, apparently; within six months he must “table comprehensive draft regulations for consideration by the National Assembly”.
Assuming Ramaphosa will dither while coins drop, it will be up to the seventh administration to draw up regulations, which parliament will then consider (rubber-stamp) before resolving that the president can proclaim them.
Now, there are various problems with the EMAB. The process was rushed; there was insufficient consultation; there was the political opportunism of Motsoaledi and the voracious ANC; there’s the matter of just how much power the law gives the president to set the limits around party funding.
But the transparency issue is particularly infuriating. The lack of funding limits isn’t some small oversight that took everyone by surprise — it was flagged throughout the legislative process. Ramaphosa chose to do nothing about it. That speaks to his own cynical politicking and the hollowness of his promises regarding the fight against corruption and state capture.
It is, of course, entirely possible that Ramaphosa surprises every one of us and puts regulations in place quick-quick. But I wouldn’t put my money on that. There’s too much at stake.
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