The Electoral Commission is preparing to host a symposium on Political Funding in South Africa.
This follows four years of implementing the Political Funding Act of 2018. This law took effect on 1 April 2021.
The symposium will be held in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, on 18 and 19 June 2025.
The symposium will be held under the theme: “Sustaining Multi-Party Democracy through Enhancing Political Funding Regulation in South Africa”.
The aim of the symposium is to foster informed dialogue on matters related to the use of money in politics, the required transparency and accountability models, as well as possible reforms to ensure an effective political finance regulatory regime in South Africa.
The key highlights of the programme of the symposium include opening remarks by the chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mosotho Moepya.
The Chief Electoral Officer, Sy Mamabolo, and the political funding unit will outline the experience of implementing the law since its promulgation. This aspect will involve the points of success and areas of challenge.
The Human Sciences Research Council will outline the preliminary outcomes of a research study which, amongst others, gathered the views and perspectives of stakeholders and the public on political financing in the country. Several scholars will also present their work in this area.
The Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, is also scheduled to address the symposium. The Minister is expected to provide a perspective on the public funding of elected representatives to enhance multi-party democracy.
Highlights of the programme include the following:
• A global perspective on political funding and campaign finance.
• The role and mandate of the political funding framework in strengthening democratic governance.
• Assessing the capacity and commitment of key stakeholders in improving the regulation of political funding.
• Transparency in public and private political party funding.
The symposium will convene a wide range of stakeholders, including representatives from political parties, Members of Parliament, academia, civil society, media, the business sector, as well as international and intergovernmental organisations.
Speaking ahead of the symposium, Mamabolo said a collective commitment to enhancing transparency in the political funding landscape is important to foster a vibrant system of multiparty democracy.
“By convening diverse stakeholders, we aim to critically assess our progress and explore avenues for strengthening the current regulatory framework and thus ensure that our democracy remains robust and resilient,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za
