Parliament's Multiparty Chief Whips' Forum on Wednesday put on the backburner an Independent Democrats (ID) proposal to appoint an ad hoc committee to consider regulations on party funding.

African National Congress (ANC) chief whip Mathole Motshekga said that the forum agreed that the issue merited serious reflection, but parties needed more time to mull the matter internally before it could be dealt with by Parliament.

"Discussion on the matter must be more about how political parties should be funded in a democracy, rather than narrowing this critical matter around only the disclosure of donations and election expenditure.

"The Forum was therefore unanimous in its view that political parties must be afforded an opportunity to begin deliberating on this matter within their respective party constitutional structures before the matter can be entertained by Parliament," he said.

Non-governmental organisations have for years called for party funding to be regulated to reduce the potential for corruption, but say that parties across the spectrum seem reluctant to commit to greater transparency.