Electorate ‘must be privy to funding’

The electorate should be provided with all information held by political parties, also about the private funding they receive, Pansy Tlakula, chairwoman of the Information Regulator says.

Parliament’s ad hoc committee looking into the funding of political parties is holding public hearings on its draft political party funding bill, which was published in September.

In her submission on Tuesday, Tlakula said the regulator agreed with a recent high court ruling that the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) seemed to have been drafted without political parties in mind.

In September, the High Court in Cape Town ordered Parliament to amend PAIA to allow for the disclosure of private political party funding information, in what was seen as final confirmation that parties can no longer refuse to reveal their funders.

“The regulator agrees with the court that section 32 (1) read with section 19 of the Constitution and sections 7(2) and 1(d) therefore, require disclosure of information on political parties’ private funding for the exercise and protection of the right to vote,” said Tlakula.

Tlakula said Paia was unconstitutional and invalid insofar as it did not allow for the disclosure of information held by political parties given the public nature of political parties. The high court gave Parliament 18 months to correct the inconsistencies.