South Africa's groundbreaking Political Party Funding Act

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed the Political Party Funding Act into operation with effect from April 1. The ANC has been among parties that complained that the act would cripple the governing party and had called on the law to be sent back to parliament for fine-tuning. But that will no longer be happening because Ramaphosa is pleased with the act as is. The act requires political parties and independent candidates to keep clear records of donations exceeding the prescribed threshold in any given financial year. To take the conversation further as we close off the month we talk to: • George Mahlangu Head: Political Funding UnitIndependent Electoral Commission (IEC) • Grant Masterson Program Manager: African Peer Review MechanismElectoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy Africa (EISA) • Prof Kealeboga Maphunye ChairpersonDepartment of Political Sciences