NGO My Vote Counts (MVC) launched an urgent application in the Western Cape High Court on Friday to ensure that limits and thresholds for political party funding are kept in place.
The case comes a day after the ANC postponed a resolution on political party funding in the National Assembly until next week so further consultations could take place.
The respondents in the MVC case are President Cyril Ramaphosa, minister of justice and correctional services Ronald Lamola and home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi.
“Our application asks the court to make an immediate order to declare parts of the Electoral Matters Amendment Act as they relate to the Political Party Funding Act (PPFA), specifically to the R100,000 disclosure threshold and the R15m donation limit, inconsistent with the constitution and invalid. Further, that until parliament passes a resolution on the matter, and the president makes a final determination on these limits, the disclosure threshold should be R100,000, and the upper limit R15m,” MVC said in a statement.
The lacuna in the law was created by the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill, which has been signed by Ramaphosa, excluding the limit and threshold and stating that the National Assembly must first pass a resolution before the president can promulgate regulations on them. Without this resolution there will be no limits for donations and thresholds for disclosure of donations to political parties.
The bill removed clauses from the Political Party Funding Act governing the maximum amount of a donation that may be accepted from a person or entity within a financial year, and the threshold amount of all donations received must be disclosed.
The ANC’s withdrawn resolution proposed to retain the previous amounts, namely the limit of donations that can be received from one person or entity at R15m and the threshold amount for disclosure at R100,000.
MVC says a resolution is essential to ensure transparency in political party funding.
“We are asking the court to close the gap, or lacuna, in the law until parliament and the president fulfil their duties. Now, this gap means that a donation of any amount can be made to a political party or independent candidate, and there is no legal obligation to disclose this under the PPFA. A political party or independent could receive a donation of R100m from a donor looking to buy influence, and the public would not know.”
The MVC affidavit warns that the lacuna in the law poses the danger of grave opportunistic abuses of the framework for private funding of political parties. This would irreversibly harm SA’s constitutional democracy and its voting public, it says.
The NGO opposed the amendments to the Political Party Funding Act on the additional ground that it places too much power in the hands of the president to determine the upper limit of donations and the reporting threshold, as this could disproportionately benefit the political interests of the ruling party, “creating an unequal playing field for other political entities. It is also irrational to vest these powers in the president,” MVC said in a statement.
It said the commencement date for the bill must coincide with the proclamation by Ramaphosa of the political party funding limits.
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