Political Party Funding Act challenged in court

The controversial Political Party Funding Act will come under the spotlight again this week. This as the civil society and advocacy group My Vote Counts has taken parts of the Act to the constitutional court to be declared unconstitutional.In the statement the group’s Project Lead on money in Politics Joel Bregman, said that they’ve been patient with the court processes to have the matter enrolled in court. “Almost two years since we filed papers, our application challenging the constitutionality of the Political Funding Act (PFA) will be heard in the Western Cape High Court, from Monday to Wednesday,” said Bergman. In addition, Bregman said that the Act is one of the most important pieces of legislation since 1996 and has gone a long way in deepening transparency in the country’s politics and strengthening the right to vote.“However, almost four years after its enactment and considering the disclosures published by the IEC, it is evident that the Act will not meet its constitutional aims of transparency, openness and accountability and needs to be strengthened,” explained Bregman.In its current form, the Act allows donations below R100 000 to go undisclosed, exempts natural persons from disclosure, ignores cumulative donations from related entities, allows excessive individual donations of up to R15 million per year, and grants the President unchecked discretion over funding limits. However, some political parties have already indicated their intentions of opposing the application brought by My Vote Counts to declare parts of the Party Funding Act unconstitutional.One of the parties challenging the Act, is ActionSA. “ActionSA contends the application brought by My Vote Counts is ill-conceived in its attempt to lower and remove donations and reporting thresholds, respectively. Our opposition is based upon the impact such changes will have on the ability of parties to campaign and offer political choices to South Africans. It also fundamentally misses the real issue, which is the current culture of impunity with which parties are not complying with the Act, something which needs to be addressed,” said ActionSA National Chairperson, Michael Beaumont. Meanwhile, other political parties including the ANC have also rejected the Act in its current form.