Overview of the Political Party Funding Act

Transcript:Overview of the Political Party Funding Act:
Overview of the Political Party Funding Act Electoral Commission July 2019 1 2 Background South Africa is one of the few countries in the world which has not regulated the private funding of political parties Two-thirds of the world’s countries ban foreign political donations to political parties. In addition, 50% of countries restrict donations to political parties stemming from entities such as charities, religious, political or social organisations South Africa is a signatory member of the African Union and is in accordance with Article 10 of the AU Convention on Preventing and Combatting Corruption is obliged to adopt legislative measures to ‘incorporate the principle of transparency into funding of political parties’. A number of civil society organisations (notably My Vote Counts (MVC) and The Right to Know (R2K)) have been campaigning for a number of years for regulations to control party funding On 28 July 2016 MVC launched application in WC High Court requesting PAIA to be declared unconstitutional and ineffective in accessing private political funding information 3 Background On 27 September 2017 WC High Court rules in favour of MVC, declares PAIA unconstitutional and gives parliament 18 months to rectify defects On 21 June 2018 the Constitutional Court rules in favour of My Vote Counts regarding the invalidity of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) with regards to the access of private donor information of political parties The judgment acknowledges Parliament’s efforts to address the issue of party funding through the Political Party Funding Bill (which had started in June 2017) The judgment obliges political parties and independent candidates to disclose information regarding their sources of funding and make it readily accessible to the public This includes all information on donations, amounts and identities of donors 4 Legislative process In response to these legal challenges and mounting public pressure over the need for parties to disclose sources of party funding, in June 2017 2017 the National Assembly resolved to establish the Ad Hoc Committee on the Funding of Political Parties Mandate was to enquire into and make recommendations on the funding of political parties represented in national and provincial legislatures with a view to introducing, if necessary, amending legislation. As a point of departure the Committee invited public comment on the funding of political parties including the adequacy or not of the existing legislation. The Electoral Commission was also invited to brief the Committee on party funding