IEC: ANC, EFF miss party funding deadline
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) says the ANC, EFF, ATM and the Minority Front all failed to meet the deadline for submission of the political party funding financial statements for 2021 and 2022.
The commission briefed the media in Centurion on Tuesday.
IEC Chairperson Mosotho Moepya said the four parties which did not submit financial statements are COPE, AIC, NFP and the PAC.
"Forty-one parties submitted their financial statements where a total of 24 parties submitted on or before the deadline of 30 September 2022 and 17 submitted after the deadline.
"Amongst 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.
"Among the 11 represented parties that submitted, two parties failed to submit financial statements relating to direct funding, namely, the ANC and the ATM. The ANC has since rectified this omission by submitting revised financial statements, albeit after the prescribed date," added Moepya.
"Nine parties met the submission deadline of 30 September 2022, and two did not. The parties that submitted after the prescribed date are the EFF and the MF, with regards to the unrepresented parties, 30 submitted their financial statements."
According to the commission, the total amount disclosed by political parties in the financial year was R 145.4 million.
The monetary component of this is R137.3 million whilst the in-kind component was R8.1 million.
The Represented Political Party Fund disbursed R162.9 million to represented political parties whilst the Multi-Party Democracy Fund distributed R5 million.
The IEC says the majority of represented political parties received unqualified audit opinions on their financial statements relating to the funds.
However, for the ACDP and GOOD parties, the independent auditors’ opinion was qualified.
"In respect of the ANC, the independent auditor’s opinion was a disclaimer. The independent auditor’s opinion indicated that this was with regard to statements relating to direct funding.
"The auditor stated that they were unable to obtain financial information to enable them to express an opinion on donations, hence a disclaimer," said Moepya.
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