Electoral Matters Amendment Bill signed into law despite donation limit concerns

President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed the controversial Electoral Matters Amendment Bill into law as concerns about the legislation linger.

The Electoral Matters Amendment Bill landed on Ramaphosa’s desk after it was passed by Parliament in March.

The president has now approved the new law.

What is the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill about?

The bill was introduced to bring other pieces of legislation, including the Political Parties Funding Act (PPFA), in line with the Electoral Amendment Act, which allows independent candidates to contest the national and provincial elections.

The legislation removes the R15 million limit on donations to political parties from a single donor per year as well as the R100 000 threshold for declaring these donations to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).

The authority to establish limits will now rest with the president, who will act upon a resolution from the National Assembly as prescribed in the PPFA.

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The bill also changes the formula of how political parties and independents represented in legislatures receive allocations of state funds.

The bigger parties will now receive a larger share of the money.

“In this context, the new legislation provides for independent representatives to receive funds from the multi-party democracy fund, which is also administered by the IEC.

“While the represented political parties fund is resourced by the fiscus, the multi-party democracy fund aims to raise and distribute donated funds from the private sector to represented political parties. The fund will now include independent candidates,” the Presidency said in a statement on Tuesday.

Gap in the bill?

Last week, MPs were warned of a potential gap in the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill.

Parliamentary legal advisor Charmaine van der Merwe told the National Assembly Programming Committee that political parties could receive as much money as is given to them and not have to declare the funds.

To remedy this, the National Assembly needs to adopt a motion so the president can set new limits for donations.

“So we are sitting a bit between a rock and a hard place. But we are fortunate that the act currently provides that in section 24, that the National Assembly may make a resolution and that the president may then make regulations based on that resolution. So it is currently possible in terms of the act,” Van Der Merwe said last Friday.

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This means that the National Assembly resolution can use the current donation threshold and the current annual limit.

Van der Merwe further emphasised that the resolution did not align with the provisions of the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill, but rather with those of the PPFA.

Secretary to the National Assembly, Masibulele Xaso, proposed that a sitting be held on 16 May to consider a motion on the resolution.

“The 15th [of May] is Cabinet [meeting] day and therefore, we need the numbers in the House for these pieces of law to be processed.”

Acting National Assembly Speaker Lechesa Tsenoli agreed with the proposal.

The matter will be discussed again at another committee meeting.

Watch Friday’s meeting below:

Some political parties and civil society organisations have vowed to take legal action against the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill.

The opposition will challenge the legislation at the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) as it disadvantaged smaller parties.

My Vote Counts (MVC) previously argued that the bill will make it easier for political parties and independent candidates to receive more money from donors, with less transparency.

Meanwhile, the other bill Ramaphosa has signed into law is the Second Adjustments Appropriation Bill.

This legislation will allocate an extra R200 million to political party funding.

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