Parties have until Friday to disclose private funders – NGO

My Vote Counts is asking all political parties represented in Parliament to disclose their private funders by Friday, the deadline for responses to the non-governmental organisation’s Promotion of Access to Information Act application. 

This move came after the non-governmental organisation lost its constitutional case last year for full disclosure in private party political donations. 

My Vote Counts wanted financial reports detailing all donations – funds, goods and services – received by South Africa’s political organisations from private individuals, companies and foreign governments. 

On May 31, the organisation, through the act, requested access to financial information from each of the 13 political parties represented in Parliament. 

My Vote Counts coordinator Janine Ogle said on the forms that they wanted each party to name their private donors, the amount they received from the donors, when they received the donations, whether there were any conditions related to these donations and, if so, the nature of the conditions. 

“The information has been sought for the past five years. Thus far we have only received written responses from two political parties,” said Ogle. 

She said should My Vote Counts not be able to gather this information in order to disseminate it to the electorate prior to the elections, then the organisation would institute legal action to ensure that legislation was passed to provide for proactive disclosure of the information that they sought. 

This, she said, would provide the electorate with the information it needed to make an informed decision at the ballot box in future elections. 

Ogle said there would be no appeal process and the organisation would go straight to court if parties did not supply them with the requested information. 

My Vote Counts went to the Constitutional Court arguing that the constitutional right of access to information and the right to vote, enshrined in the Bill of Rights, required systematic disclosure of private funding to political parties. 

“It contends that citizens are entitled to access to information about private funding sources of political parties.” 

The organisation claimed that Parliament had a constitutional obligation to enact specific legislation to mandate this disclosure, in addition to the wide general provisions of the act. 

In its response, Parliament argued that the act adequately and exhaustively covered the constitutional right of access to information. Therefore, disclosure of the private funding of political parties might be requested through this existing legislation. 

“Parliament contends that it has enacted several pieces of legislation that promote accountable and transparent governance.” 

The court dismissed My Vote Counts’ application.