10 opposition parties plot next move on Electoral Matters Amendment Act

CAPE TOWN - Ten opposition parties in Parliament opposed to sections of the newly-minted Electoral Matters Amendment Act are meeting on Tuesday to plot their next move. 

This follows weeks of threats to take legal action, accusing the African National Congress (ANC) of staging a cash grab of state resources. 

The bill was signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday.

The aggrieved parties said that changing the funding formula for how they would in future receive funding from the state was unnecessary and went beyond paving the way for independent candidates to participate in national and provincial elections. 

The Electoral Matters Amendment Act will ensure independent candidates declare their funding sources and also benefit from the Multi-Party Democracy Fund if they win a seat in a legislature. 

But it's a return to the previous funding ratio of a 90 to 10 proportional to equitable split that has outraged opposition parties. 

They say this will benefit the majority party by as much as R50 million annually. 

Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) chief whip, Narend Singh, said that an emergency meeting of parties had been called for Tuesday afternoon. 

"It seems to be a cash grab by the ruling party. The Political Party Funding Bill was agreed to by consensus. The formula was agreed to by consensus and there was no need to interfere with the formula in this bill." 

Singh said it was disappointing that the president did not engage the parties on correspondence sent to his office more than a month ago, to express these concerns.