TRANSPARENCY
Private funding of parties will reveal who pulls the strings
The Gupta saga has taught South Africa the importance of identifying who holds influence
The Constitutional Court’s recent judgment in the My Vote Counts case puts a spotlight on the private funding of political parties. It is surprising that this topic has not been scrutinised more closely during the first two decades of democracy. Having left the question of political party funding unregulated, SA has had a "don’t ask, don’t tell" attitude to the issue. Parties on all sides of the spectrum have not been particularly keen to reveal their funding sources. The DA was particularly vocal about the importance of respecting the privacy of political parties. In the recent court decision, civil society organisation My Vote Counts argued that information about political parties’ private funding is essential for citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote in SA’s multiparty democracy. Due to the importance of this information in the right to vote, the organisation contended that the constitutional right of access to information required the systematic disclosure of p...
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