The Political Party Funding Act requires parties to disclose donations above a set threshold to the Electoral Commission, and limits how much one donor may give a party in a year. Both amounts are set by the President on the recommendation of the National Assembly.
What changed in 2025
| Threshold | Before | From August 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Disclosure: donations above this amount must be disclosed | R100,000 | R200,000 |
| Annual cap: the most one donor may give one party in a year | R15 million | R30 million |
The new amounts were set in a Government Gazette dated 6 August 2025 (No. 53182), following a National Assembly resolution of 20 May 2025.
Still being challenged
My Vote Counts challenged the President's power to set these limits. The Western Cape High Court dismissed the application in August 2025, and in September 2025 the organisation announced it would approach the Constitutional Court. Check the current position before relying on these figures.
What a party has to track
- A running total per donor for the party's financial year, so a donation that crosses R200,000 is noticed when it happens, not at quarter end.
- Each donor's total against the R30 million annual cap.
- The quarterly disclosure to the Electoral Commission, prepared and checked by a person before submission.
Try our free party-funding threshold checker to see where one donor stands. It runs entirely in your browser.
How Election Campaign OS approaches it
Election Campaign OS totals every donor nightly, alerts at the disclosure threshold, warns as a donor nears the cap, and prepares the quarterly disclosure export for a person to sign off. It does not block donations, file anything with the Electoral Commission, or certify compliance. Thresholds are stored as settings with effective dates, so a gazetted change is a configuration update, not a rebuild.
General information only, not legal advice.