The long-awaited Political Party Funding Act has been described as a victory for transparency and accountability. 

This is according to lobby group My Vote Counts, which hailed the law, which comes into effect on Thursday, as a victory. 

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) said it "is all systems go" to implement the Act aimed at providing transparency about who funds political parties. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Act into law in January 2019 and promulgated it in February this year. 

The contested law seeks to regulate the public and private funding of all political parties in an effort to establish transparency and trust regarding who donates to political players in South Africa. 

"The commencement of the Act will see the first quarterly disclosures - the sources and amounts of private funding received by political parties - be made available to the public ahead of the elections," My Vote Count said.

It was a three-year fight for the organisation which took it all the way to the Constitutional Court, and the new law will now allow the electorate to know who funds political parties.

The ruling comes at a crucial time when the country is set to head into local elections.

Analysts say this is a step in the right direction. Professor Barry Hanyane from the University of North West told News24 that, during this new dawn of democracy in the country, accountability would be very important. He said the Act would eliminate many challenges, especially with state resources being abused by criminals masquerading as Good Samaritans.

Hanyane said, "It says to us that the days of using elections as a source of money laundering and other white collar crimes activities are gone. Including by the way the notions illicit financial flows. Including companies outside our borders are involved in terms of moving monies around in the name of donating to certain political parties."

The Act further scrutinises international donors to political parties - a longstanding bone of contention. 

"Such a donation must have a purpose. And the Act speaks around issues of policy development, training of political parties, staff members and these must be declared as well. So overall, the Act says to us, the degree of transparency and accountability must be at the forefront to ensure that there is some oversight," Hanyane said.

Meanwhile, the IEC said the implementation of the Act would introduces a new era to South Africa’s electoral democracy.

"All political parties [will be required] to disclose donations above R100 000 to the Electoral Commission. The Act also sets restrictions on sources of funding for political parties including outlawing donations by government departments, state-owned entities and foreign governments and agencies," the commission said in a statement. 

Now, all registered political parties have been urged to sign up to the Online Party Funding System.

The site will allow for parties and their donors to make electronic disclosures to the IEC via the website.

The commission says it has also been engaging potential funders to support the Multi-Party Democracy Fund.

"As part of its fund-raising drive to encourage donations to the Fund... this Fund present a perfect opportunity for corporates, individuals and foundations to support multi-party democracy on a non-partisan basis," the commission said.