The party defections of March this year have had an unexpected consequence: smaller parties have benefited from the public purse.
Former Pan Africanist Congress MP Patricia de Lille’s Independent Democrats (ID) will receive R270 276 to cover the costs of the party’s operational expenses, while former Western Cape premier Peter Marais’s New Labour Party will receive R202 480.
By contrast, the African National Congress will receive R42,5-million (it has 573 seats, including 298 in the legislatures), or 63% of the total allocation administered by the Independent Electoral Commission. The Democratic Alliance gets R7,08-million, and the Inkatha Freedom Party R5,05-million.
In terms of the Funding of Represented Political Parties Act of 1997, in the 2002/03 financial year R66-million will be spent on the operational expenses of 20 political parties.
Ninety percent of the fund, about R60-million, goes to the parties proportionately, on the basis of their strength in the combined legislatures and National Assembly. Ten percent, about R6-million, is shared equally between political parties in the provincial legislatures. This means parties with one seat in a legislature get more than parties with one seat in the National Assembly.
The ID gets R144 548 for having two of the 840 seats nationwide, and also R125 727, its share of the Gauteng legislature party funding allocation. At provincial level, the ID gets the same amount as the ANC (50 seats in the Gauteng legislature) or the DA (12 seats).
Other new ”defection” parties benefiting from the allocation are former United Democratic Movement MP Nelson Ramodike’s Alliance for Democracy and Prosperity. He gets R72 274 for one Assembly seat.
New party leaders such as De Lille and Ramodike will also get salary increases. As a re-elected MP, De Lille got a package of R380 760; as a minority party leader she gets R408 600. Ramodike’s income will rise from R346 140 as a first- term MP to R389 145 as a minority party leader.