Ramaphosa Raises Limit for Private Donations to Political Parties to R30m a Year

The president's acted on a resolution taken by the National Assembly in May after a revision of the limit and the threshold for declaring donations by Parliament’s home affairs committee.

President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on 1 August 2025. Picture: Simphiwe Nkosi/EWN

CAPE TOWN - President Cyril Ramaphosa has officially raised the limit for private donations to political parties to R30 million a year.

He's acted on a resolution taken by the National Assembly in May after a revision of the limit and the threshold for declaring donations by Parliament’s home affairs committee.

Like the donation limit, the declaration threshold has also been doubled to R200,000.

After removing the R15 million donation limit private donors could make to political parties and independent candidates just before last year's May elections, the Western Cape High Court forced Parliament to reinstate the limit in August last year and for political parties to backdate their declarations to the Electoral Commission until a new limit was set.

The original limits were set in 2018 when the National Assembly passed the Political Party Funding Act.

In a proclamation published in the government gazette, President Ramaphosa has now determined the new donation limit to be R30 million.

All donations more than R200,000 will now also have to be declared.

Speaking in the Western Cape last week, the IEC's manager for political funding, George Mahlangu said no party would be off the hook in declaring its donations, and even if below the declaration threshold, parties are expected to record these in their annual financial statements.