The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) conference is expected to discuss whether the electoral body should be given more powers to police political party funding.

The IEC’s two-day symposium on political party funding kicks off in Durban today.

The @IECSouthAfrica is hosting a two day political party Funding symposium in Durban. Amongst critical issues that are expected to be discussed is whether the IEC should be given more powers to police political party funding. #sabcnews pic.twitter.com/VCLGBhcr4Q

— Natasha Nokuthula Phiri (@NatashaN_Phiri) June 18, 2025

The event will reflect on the challenges and successes of the Political Party Funding Act since its implementation in 2021.

The Act aims to regulate the public and private funding of political parties to improve transparency and accountability, as well as avoid capture.

The Commission’s Party Funding Chief Executive, George Mahlangu, says the decision on how to improve the manner in which the legislation operates lies with the public and their representatives giving insight in terms of international best practice.

Mahlangu says, “In other countries, there are two separate institutions, there’s an institution that does the registration of political parties and the political funding, and then there’s an EMB (Electoral Management Body) which does elections and elections only.”

“Now in those instances, you find that the political parties that transgress the law get deregistered by the body that registered them initially. Now in our case at the moment, the political parties didn’t register with the political funding unit, but they registered with the electoral operations through the Electoral Act. Now, if they transgress the law, is the political funding unit the right unit to deregister the political party?”

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