My Vote Counts says the R200,000 disclosure threshold and incomplete donor details make it harder for voters to trace political influence ahead of the November 4 local government election.
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South Africans are heading into a local government election marked by deep voter dissatisfaction, according to research. However, the system intended to show voters who is financing the political parties competing for their votes still leaves important parts of that picture invisible.
Under the current rules, political parties, independent representatives and independent candidates must disclose donations above the R200,000 threshold, calculated cumulatively in a financial year. The disclosure threshold was increased from R100,000 to R200,000 in 2025, while the maximum annual donation from a single donor to a party was increased from R15million to R30 million.
However, non-governmental organisation My Vote Counts believes there should not be a disclosure threshold because voters should know who is supporting political parties and independent candidates, regardless of the amount, in the interests of transparency and accountability.
Noxolo Mfocwa, the organisation’s advocacy lead, says large donations can give donors an avenue to exert political influence over a party once it is in government. She says donors interested in advancing democracy as a whole could instead put their money into the existing Multi-Party Democracy Fund.
She says My Vote Counts has an online platform called Whose Vote Counts, where it tracks companies and individuals that fund political parties and the parties they support.
She says the current reporting threshold leaves gaps in the public record.
Last week, the Electoral Commission of South African (IEC) revealed that four political parties had declared a combined total of R116.8m in donations during the first quarter of the 2026/27 financial year, with the DA accounting for about 89% of the total.
The latest disclosures also raise questions about how easily voters can see the connections between donors who appear to be separate but are actually connected. The DA declared R30m from Fynbos Ekwiteit (Pty) Ltd and R25m from Fynbos Kapitaal (Pty) Ltd, two entities connected to Capitec founder Michiel le Roux, according to My Vote Counts.
Together, the companies contributed R55m to the DA in a single quarter. While the donations may comply with the law because they came from separate legal entities, My Vote Counts says the combined value highlights a gap in the system when it comes to connected entities and common ownership. The organisation says voters should not have to conduct their own investigations to establish who is ultimately behind major political donations.
Last week, the IEC also identified compliance deficiencies in the ANC’s declarations relating to R15.27 million in donations. My Vote Counts says this is unacceptable.
The National has repeatedly asked the ANC about the issue but the party has not yet provided a response.
The problem is not limited to companies. MVC also raised concerns about individual donors being listed with incomplete names or initials, such as “Mr M Moshal” and “Mr D Barnes”.
Mfocwa says this can make it difficult for voters to establish exactly who is behind a donation, particularly when the donor does not have a public profile.
She says voters should not have to search corporate records or resort to Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) applications to establish who is funding political parties.
She told The National that the threshold could allow donors to give substantial amounts without their individual contributions becoming visible to the public. She argues that a donor could structure contributions below the reporting threshold, making it harder for voters to establish the full extent of their financial support for a political party.
She argues that tracing political funding matters because it can help voters assess whether financial interests may intersect with political decision-making. She said, for example, that voters affected by mining could reasonably want to know whether mining interests were funding the political parties making decisions affecting their communities.
MVC says it will continue monitoring political donations, including links between connected entities, while engaging the IEC on improving the accessibility and identification of donor information.
The funding concerns come as South Africans prepare to vote on November 4, with the IEC’s voter-participation research describing the 2026 local government election as being planned in the most challenging pre-electoral climate observed over the past 30 years.
Its survey found high levels of dissatisfaction, disillusionment, pessimism, service-delivery frustration and political disengagement.
Last week, the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Local Government Elections met to assess preparations for the election, with the IEC reporting that 29.25 million voters are registered.
With political parties ramping up their campaigns, My Vote Counts says voters need to be able to see who is financing the parties seeking their support.
It says greater transparency would allow voters to consider not only which party they support, but also who may have an interest in influencing it.
The election will be held on 4 November.
