IEC owed at least R17m by political parties that failed to submit audited financial statements for a single financial year

CAPE TOWN - The Electoral Commission (IEC) says it is owed at least R17 million just for a single financial year by political parties that have failed to submit audited financial statements. 

The commission said it was weighing up the feasibility of chasing after the money owed in penalties for the 2021-22 financial year.

It follows an Electoral Court ruling last year that more than 400 political parties pay up for contravening the Political Party Funding Act.

By law, the maximum fine that can be imposed on a political party for not submitting financial statements is R40,000.

Political parties that were recently deregistered by the commission due to inactivity owe the commission R5 million of the total outstanding debt.

Speaking at a political funding seminar on Thursday, the IEC's chief executive for party funding, George Mahlangu, said the commission was undertaking a provincial study to determine whether it was worth trying to recoup the fines.

"The money that is meant to run the elections, we are going to chase these monies, which we do not know whether we will get or not. This is the kind of headache we are faced with, and I’m not sure whether the commission was meant to do this kind of business."

Mahlangu said the commission was yet to calculate the cost of contraventions to the Political Party Funding Act for the last three financial years.

Among the bigger political parties which have fallen foul of the law, include the ANC, ATM, COPE and the PAC.