On 16 May, we launched an application at the Western Cape High Court challenging aspects of the Political Party Funding Act (PPFA).
We seek to have the following addressed:
• All private donations be disclosed; effectively scrapping the R100 000 disclosure threshold. Having this disclosure threshold defeats the purpose of disclosure and in effect, defeats the purpose of the Act.
• The R15 million maximum donation limit in a financial year be significantly reduced. What we have observed in the two years of quarterly disclosures is a heavy reliance on private funding by political parties. The quarterly disclosures have shown how large donors have the potential to yield undue influence.
• The disclosure of financial information related to all expenditure of private donations. The Act does compel parties to keep record of every cent received and thus they do have this information. We are therefore calling for the disclosure of this information as well.
• The Act in its current form does not give direction on how to deal with donors who are related — whether through family or through business. In the past disclosures, we have seen examples of this where three sisters of the Oppenheimer family, and various companies linked to Patrice Motsepe made donations to parties.
Below are all the court papers in relation to this matter.
- Applicant’s Founding Affidavit (deposed) 11052023
- Applicant’s Notice of Intention to Amend 07062024
- Applicant’s Supplementary Affidavit (incl annexes) 07062024
