Party funding bill gets the nod from committee
The political party funding bill, which seeks to provide guidelines and new regulations on the funding of political parties, is a step closer to becoming law.
The bill includes a ban on donations from foreign sources and a requirement for parties to disclose all donations above a threshold yet to be set.
It also provides for the establishment of two funds, to be run by the Electoral Commission of SA, for political parties. A represented parties fund will cater for political parties represented in Parliament and provincial legislatures with money appropriated by Parliament.
A multiparty democracy fund will accept funds from private sources for parties that are represented in Parliament and provincial legislatures.
The bill further states that the two funds should be managed by a separate business unit with its own CE.
On Tuesday, the ad hoc committee processing the proposed legislation approved the bill, which will now be forwarded to the National Assembly for debate and declarations.
Some observers see the bill as one of the most important pieces of legislation since the Constitution was passed.
“We are confident that the process was transparent, inclusive and will stand the test of time. We began by inviting written and oral comments on the existing legislation and received 17 from individuals and organisations,” said Vincent Smith, the chairman of the committee.
Civil society organisations have long called for Parliament to enact legislation regulating party funding, in line with AU, UN and other anticorruption codes signed by the country.
The organisations have said
lack of regulation gives unethical and dishonest donors the chance to meddle in politics.
“This is one of the most important pieces of legislation since the Constitution was passed,” Lawson Naidoo, the executive director of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, commented recently.
“One of the big gaps in our democratic architecture has been the lack of accountability [in terms of donations and funding of political parties] … we know how the use of money in politics has caused so much damage,” he said.
“This legislation is long overdue and will bring us in line with various anticorruption codes and the constitutional requirement to have transparency in the funding of political parties.”
Earlier in 2017, lobby group My Vote Counts said it largely supported the proposed legislation. “This process is incredibly important to strengthen our political system by increasing transparency in the identity of the benefactors of political parties and improving trust and accountability in our politics,” said co-ordinator Janine Ogle.
She said the bill, once passed, would ensure that political parties were not corrupted.
In September, the High Court in Cape Town ordered Parliament to amend the Promotion of Access to Information Act to allow for the disclosure of private political party funding information. The court gave Parliament 18 months to correct inconsistencies in the act.