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Eyebrows raised at ANC funding submission

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Ad hoc committee chairperson Vincent Smith. (File, Misheck Makora, Daily Sun)
Ad hoc committee chairperson Vincent Smith. (File, Misheck Makora, Daily Sun)

Parliament’s special committee on the funding of political parties has moved to assure the public and the opposition that the ANC’s proposals to the committee will not derail or influence its decisions.

In an unusual move the ANC, in support of its party political funding reform initiative, made written submissions to the committee last month proposing increased funding for political parties represented in Parliament and also called for the establishment of a new party funding regulatory model.

It is the only political party represented in Parliament that has done so besides the Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo), a political formation not represented in Parliament.

Opposition parties raised questions about this move but committee chairperson Vincent Smith, who is from the ANC, vowed to ensure a fair process. While Smith argued that the ANC had a right to make submissions, he agreed “that it can’t be that the ANC submission must then be the line. And there is no risk of the ANC submission being the line because we have public representatives from all political parties that must defend if they think they must defend or argue, there are stakeholders and this thing will be publicised”.

“As soon as the ANC contingent moves on the ANC line, they would be brought into order. If there are any fears that the ANC submission will somehow or other derail the process ... let’s debunk that,” said Smith. He encouraged other parties to make submissions when a second round of submissions opens.

Freedom Front Plus MP Corné Mulder questioned the ANC’s decision to make a submission to a parliamentary committee in which the party is represented saying this had never happened before from an organisation represented in Parliament. “It’s a bit strange in the sense that we have not had, in the past, political parties making official submissions to committees because parties are represented here,” he said. Other opposition MPs also queried the move, with the Inkatha Freedom Party’s Narend Singh, adding he didn’t have a particular problem with the ANC making proposals as long as those submissions did not influence the members of the ANC or any other political party when it came to making collective decisions in the committee.

In defence of the governing party, ANC MP Bongani Bongo said the committee’s own advert that called for submissions did not prescribe exactly who should submit.

“I don’t think there is something fundamentally wrong with that particular submission. We will interact with that submission in exactly the same way we would deal with any other submission brought before the committee,” said Bongo.

The committee met for the first time yesterday since calling for written submissions last month. The meeting heard that 17 submissions were received from a wide range of organisations, including religious bodies, academics, civil society and individual members of the public. They will called to make oral presentations in Parliament between August 15 and 18.

It has taken 12 years for the ANC to finally move on party political funding. When the Institute for Democracy in South Africa went to court in 2005 demanding transparency in private funding, then ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe argued this was not a matter for the courts, that the ANC accepted the need for regulation and transparency and he promised they would bring proposals to Parliament.

In May this year, the party announced that it would support disclosure on private political party funding but that it wanted increased support from the national coffers. ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu revealed that in the 2017-2018 financial year, public funding for political parties amounted to just under R150 million and was proportionally allocated to political parties. In addition to this fund, members of legislatures are funded by the respective institutions. Money from both the Represented Political Parties’ Fund, which is administered by the Independent Electoral Commission, and the legislatures may only be used for specific activities and must be accounted for.

Mthembu described the R150 million as “negligible” for political parties to do their political work. “We are very far from the ideal.”

Currently political parties are not required to declare sources of their funds or how they use their money.

In its written submission, the ANC said increased public funding should be seen as part of a programme to strengthen democracy, combat corruption, build transparency and accountability and ensure that all political parties achieve financial sustainability in a manner that is transparent, ethical, lawful and predictable. The governing party also proposed that before any expansion to the public funding of political parties was considered, a new party funding regulatory model should be established founded on the principles of full financial transparency of political parties and the effective regulation of private financing.

The smaller parties wanted a more equitable funding formula that would not disadvantage them, a demand that may not go down well with the ANC. The Economic Freedom Fighters, IFP and the FF Plus had unofficially raised concerns about the application of the Political Parties Funding Act, which stipulates that 90% of the funds would be allocated proportionally and only 10% on an equal basis. They wanted a 50-50 split.

Meanwhile, the University of Cape Town’s legal division: democratic governance and rights unit has offered its research services to the parliamentary committee. It is an unusual offer but MPs welcomed it as long as the university’s role was clearly defined and remained background support.


Andisiwe Makinana
Parliamentary journalist
City Press
p:+27 11 713 9001
w:www.citypress.co.za  e: Andisiwe.Makinana@citypress.co.za
      
 
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