The National Assembly has left the determination of the disclosure threshold and funding limits for political parties to the next president to decide, possibly giving political parties free rein in these matters until regulations are adopted.
A draft ANC resolution to this affect was pushed through the National Assembly by the ANC on Thursday despite opposition by the DA, IFP, ACDP and PAC. ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina objected on procedural grounds to opposition parties making declarations outlining their opposition to the resolution and this was accepted by house chair Cedric Frolick.
DA finance spokesperson Dion George said in an interview after the sitting that the DA objected to the president having the power to decide the limits saying parliament should do this. The DA was also concerned about the possible lacuna in the law pending the regulations being promulgated.
ACDP chief whip Steve Swart said the ACDP objected in principle to the Electoral Matters Amendment Act, which repealed the relevant sections of the Political Party Funding Act.
IFP chief whip Narend Singh said he would have supported a resolution that set out definite thresholds and limits as was the case with last week’s draft resolution, which the ANC withdrew.
The adopted resolution differed from last week’s one in that it does not stipulate the threshold for disclosure of funding and the maximum amount that could be received by a political party by one person or entity.
Majodina refused a telephonic request by Business Day to explain why last week’s resolution had been changed.
Previously the Political Party Funding Act determined the threshold for disclosure as R100,000 and the maximum amount as R15m. These amounts were included in last week’s draft resolution. The Electoral Matters Amendment Act — recently signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa — removed the clauses from the Political Party Funding Act detailing these amounts and left it to the president to determine them.
In terms of the Electoral Matters Amendment Act, parliament must pass a resolution before the president can make regulations. The act stipulates what factors the president must take into account when deciding on these amounts.
The adopted resolution noted that the task of making regulations required time, and said the president must make regulations on the amounts on an urgent basis and must within six months from the date of the resolution table draft regulations for consideration by the National Assembly.
But during this six month gap there could be a lacuna in the law governing these amounts — unless the regulations are made retrospective — which means that political party funding will be unregulated.
NGO My Vote Counts (MVC) has argued that the commencement date for the act must coincide with the proclamation by the president of the political party funding limits.
MVC has launched an urgent application in the Western Cape High Court to ensure that limits and thresholds for political party funding are kept in place.
“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 , 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.
“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 Political Party Funding Act. 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 governing 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.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.