Limit party donations, says Casac

The Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) has urged Parliament to put a cap on donations to political parties from any one source to prevent undue influence from donors.

The legislature has set up an ad hoc committee to look into party funding and Casac said its proposals would protect political parties from “capture” by nefarious interests by limiting donations from foreign sources.

The organisation said the potential for foreign companies, political parties and governments to seek to influence politics in SA was dangerous and should be “strongly” regulated.

Regulations should include limits on how much a party could receive from a foreign donor during a financial year.

Furthermore, all investments made by political parties should be disclosed, including the size of the shareholding, details of the company receiving the investment and the income made on the investment.

Consideration should be given to whether an entity, the shareholders of which included a party represented in Parliament, should be prohibited from

contracting with the government, Casac said.

Private political party funding has been a contentious issue in recent times‚ with civil society groups calling for the regulation of private financing of parties in line with AU‚ UN and other anticorruption codes signed by SA.

The deadline for written submissions is on Monday, and the committee hopes to conclude its work in December.

Casac said despite obligations under international law requiring SA to pass legislation, party funding remained almost entirely unregulated, providing ample opportunity for unethical and dishonest donors to peddle influence in policy formulation and to meddle in domestic politics. This enabled corrupt relationships to develop and undermined public confidence in both political parties and democratic politics more generally.

Casac also called for the establishment of a multiparty democracy fund, to receive anonymous donations.

The organisation supported an increase in public funding for political parties owing to the importance of their roles in SA’s constitutional democracy and as a way to reduce their reliance on potentially influence-seeking private donors.