Political parties in parliament fail compliance test, regulator’s check shows
SA’s information regulator has named and shamed 14 political parties, including the ANC, DA and the EFF, for failing to meet Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia) requirements.
In a media statement on Tuesday, chair Pansy Tlakula said the regulator conducted 108 Paia assessments of public and private bodies, including political parties, universities, national and provincial government departments and JSElisted companies.
“The regulator chose to include political parties in this round of assessments to promote transparency ... as an essential part of our system of democratic governance,” Tlakula said.
“We assessed 13 political parties represented in parliament and one party not represented in parliament but with a presence in municipal councils nationally.
“We found that about 54% of political parties represented in parliament are generally noncompliant with Paia and about 46% have some level of compliance but need to improve in certain areas. Therefore, none of the political parties represented in parliament are compliant.”
The 14 political parties the regulator assessed are ActionSA, ACDP, African Independent Congress, ANC, ATM, Al Jama-ah, COPE, DA, EFF, Freedom Front Plus (FF+), GOOD, IFP, PAC and UDM.
Only ActionSA, ANC, Al Jama-ah, DA, FF+ and GOOD had compiled a Paia manual. While the ANC, Al Jama-ah, DA, FF+, GOOD and UDM had compiled a Paia manual it was “not according to requirements”.
ActionSA, ATM, GOOD and DA all created and kept records of donations exceeding the prescribed threshold made to the party and “the identity of the persons or entities who made such donations”.
According to the Political Party Funding Act, political parties must disclose all donations received above R100,000 whether in cash, kind or both to the Electoral Commission
of SA (IEC) each quarter.
Parties may not accept donations above R15m a year from a single donor, or from any government department or stateowned entity; and parties must set up separate bank accounts for all donations.
The IEC announced recently that seven political parties made declarations of almost R60m in the last quarter of 2023.
The total amount declared between October and December was R59,052,065.82, with Rise Mzansi declaring R16.7m, ActionSA R13.9m, ANC R10m, Build One SA R8.5m, Patriotic Alliance R7m, DA R2.6m and IFP R191,040.
Tlakula said 27 JSE-listed companies were assessed for Paia compliance and all were found to be “generally compliant”, though particular areas of improvement were indicated.
She said 13 universities had compiled Paia manuals, though not all were compliant with sections of the legislation.
All 27 national government departments and 27 provincial departments were assessed and all had compiled Paia manuals, except for the state security department, which was “exempted by the minister of justice & correctional services from compiling a Paia manual”.