Fixing the party funding act’s issues is a step in the maturing of our democracy
Ramaphosa should promulgate the 2018 act as soon as parliament has done the work given it by the Constitutional Court
The Political Party Funding Act of 2018 is on the president’s desk awaiting promulgation. The act took into consideration the Constitutional Court’s My Vote Counts ruling of June 2018, when it found the Promotion of Access to Information Act of 2000 to be constitutionally deficient for failing to provide for the recording, preservation and disclosure of information on private funding of political parties and independent candidates.
While the president was considering the act, the Constitutional Court held in June 2020 in the New Nation Movement case that the Electoral Act of 1998 is unconstitutional to the extent that it requires of adult citizens to be elected to the National Assembly and provincial legislatures only through their membership of political parties. Individuals, in fact, have a right to contest for seats in parliament and provincial legislatures in line with section 19 of the constitution, which provides that every citizen is free to make political choices, incl...
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