Last week the Constitutional Court confirmed a judgment by the High Court in Cape Town on the private funding of political parties and independent candidates, spurred on by legal action from nongovernmental organisation My Vote Counts. As a result of the recent ruling, within the next 18 months Parliament must amend the Promotion of Access to Information Act of 2000 and take any necessary steps to provide for the facilitation of "reasonable" access to information regarding private funding of parties and independent candidates. The court understood that allowing donors to fund political parties and candidates in secret could allow for situations where donors could leverage their funding to pursue narrow interests and public policy, which may be contrary to the national interest at times. In its judgment the Constitutional Court specifically highlighted the pitfalls of the opaque nature of political contributions in SA, noting that the lack of transparency may enable bribery and corru...
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