The Act seeks to regulate party funding and ensure that all political parties disclose private donations to promote transparency.

The commission said it postponed the hearings in April to allow time to process the large number of written submissions from the public.

"The postponement also took into consideration the capacity demands on the commission, political parties and other stakeholders during elections in 2019. Following the successful conclusion of the elections and a high-level analysis of the thousands of written submissions received, the commission is now in a position to proceed with the finalisation of the regulations and the implementation of the Act in a phased approach,” said chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo.

The party funding bill was passed by Parliament last year and signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier this year. The new law requires parties to report their funding to the commission, which would publish the information on a quarterly basis. There is no need for parties to declare donations of R100 000 or less, while an individual's donation  to a party is capped at R15 million. Furthermore, the Act prohibits political parties from accepting donations they ought to have known were generated from proceeds of crime.

The IEC said it has written to all political parties, civil society organisations, business associations and persons who made written submissions inviting them to attend the oral hearings.  

ANA