Cape Town - The IEC has withheld funding to four political parties in parliament after they failed to submit audited financial statements in line with the law.
The law requires that parties must submit financial statements by the end of September.
But the IEC said Cope, the PAC, the NFP and the African Independent Congress (AIC) had not submitted their financial statements by September 30.
However, the PAC managed to give the IEC its audited financial statements after the deadline.
Chief Executive of Political Party Funding, George Mahlangu said on Tuesday the NFP, Cope and AIC have not submitted anything to date.
The three parties would not be receiving funding from the IEC until such time that all the required information has been given to the commission.
“The four parties that failed to submit audited financial statements at the end of September, three of those to date have not submitted audited financial statements. I must say the PAC submitted audited financial statements post-the date of September 30, 2022. Those that haven’t, the law gives powers to us that we must withhold allocations that are supposed to be disbursed to those political parties.
“As things stand, the allocations from the Represented Political Parties Fund are withheld until such time that the political parties do the right thing, submit the outstanding information and then we will release their funds,” said Mahlangu.
The IEC distributes funds to parties every year and this is based on the seats they have in parliament and provincial legislatures.
But the law requires that financial statements be submitted for the parties to continue receiving funding from the IEC.
Mahlangu said they will have to wait for Cope, NFP and AIC to submit the required information before releasing the funds.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Current Affairs