ANC Parliamentary Caucus Lekgotla discuss key policies

The ANC held its Parliamentary Caucus Lekgotla in Cape Town, to discuss amongst others political party funding and its impact on political parties to perform their mandate effectively. This is the party’s first Parliamentary Lekgotla since the establishment of the 7th Parliament, which also consolidated the annual programme of action in line with the ANC’s sixth priorities of this year’s January statement.ANC Chief Whip Mdumiseni Ntuli said the threshold that has been determined to fund political parties, is also at the top of the agenda.“We have raised that concern right from the onset that it (political party funding Act) needs to be revisited because democracy itself is an expensive enterprise.The funding that come from the government through the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is by nowhere closer to sufficiently support the democratic project in our country. So, when you constrain the private contributions to as little as R15 000 or something of that nature, then it undermines the work of political parties, especially a big political party like the ANC,” said Ntuli.In addition, Ntuli said that many parties represented in parliament have since indicated their disapproval of the Act since it was implemented.“I think there’s an emerging consensus that something needs to be done to revisit the threshold and to adjust the legislation.Not in a way that is going to allow illicit funds to come into our country, but in a way that is going to slightly increase the threshold for these political parties to be able to conduct their business effectively,” explained Ntuli.