The National Assembly’s programme committee has decided that the assembly will review a resolution passed in May on political party funding that did not set rand limits and thresholds.
The resolution left it to President Cyril Ramaphosa to determine the threshold for the declaration of political funding and the limit of a single donation by an individual or entity to a political party within a financial year.
However, the previous week a draft resolution proposed by the ANC set the threshold for disclosure at R100,000 and the funding limit at R15m as previously pertaining to the Political Party Funding Act (PPFA).
National Assembly speaker Thoko Didiza said at a meeting of the programme committee on Thursday that the committee was a constitutional structure of parliament and competent to make decisions.
This decision will be conveyed to the Western Cape High Court on the return day of August 12 in the case brought by NGO My Vote Counts, which challenges the resolution.
However, the National Assembly will be in recess from Thursday, meaning reconsideration of the resolution will only be possible when parliament reconvenes on August 19.
Secretary to parliament Masibulele Xaso told the committee that legal advisers had recommended the resolution be reconsidered to include an upper limit and threshold.
“The court is interested in parties showing cause on August 12 why an order should not be granted, an order that sets the parameters — the upper limit and the threshold — by the court. The court has expressed some views that are not kind as to why parliament decided to take that route” of changing a draft resolution setting the threshold and limit to one that left this to the president to decide, Xaso said.
My Vote Counts (MVC) launched an urgent application in the Western Cape High Court to ensure that limits and thresholds for political party funding are kept in place.
The respondents in the 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,” MVC said in a statement at the time.
“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.”
The gap in the law was created by the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill, which has been signed by Ramaphosa. The bill excludes the limit and threshold, stating that the National Assembly must first pass a resolution before the president can promulgate regulations on them.
“We are asking the court to close the gap, or lacuna, in the law until parliament and the president fulfil their duties,” MVC said. “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 opportunistic abuses of the framework for private funding of political parties. This would irreversibly harm SA’s constitutional democracy and its voting public, it said.
The NGO opposed the amendments to the PPFA on the additional ground that it placed too much power in the hands of the president to determine the upper limit of donations and the reporting threshold,
That, it argues, 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.
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