Electorate ‘must be privy to funding’
Information Regulator agrees with high court ruling that Promotion of Access to Information Act has been drafted without considering political parties.
The electorate should be provided with all information held by political parties, including information relating to private funding they receive, Pansy Tlakula, chairwoman of SA’s Information Regulator says. Parliament’s ad hoc committee looking into the funding of political parties is holding public hearings on its draft political party funding bill, which was published in September. In her submission to the committee on Tuesday, Tlakula said that the regulator agreed with a recent high court ruling that found the Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia) appeared to have been drafted without having political parties in mind. In September, the High Court in Cape Town ordered Parliament to amend Paia to allow for the disclosure of private political party funding information, in what was seen as a final confirmation that political parties can no longer refuse to reveal their funders. "The regulator agrees with the court that section 32 (1) read with section 19 of the Constitution...
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