The ANC missed the deadline to register some of its own candidates for the local government election and, as Frans Cronje explains, that administrative blunder tells you more about the party than any policy speech. Then James Myburgh unpacks the latest party funding declarations: the DA declares R104 million of the total R116 million for the last quarter, while the ANC, MKP, and the EFF declare almost nothing. James argues that the party funding disclosure law may end up strengthening the illicit economy’s hold on our politics.