Raising annual donation limit for political parties a setback for transparency & democracy

CAPE TOWN - Advocacy NGO, My Vote Counts, said that raising the annual donation limit for political parties was a setback for transparency and democracy.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed the new regulations into law on the advice of Parliament, doubling the previous donation limit to R30 million and raising the threshold for making declarations to R200,000.

My Vote Counts, which has regularly challenged Parliament in the courts and won over its decisions related to political funding, believes the new limits will make it easier for private interests to influence local politics and for corruption to occur.

This is only the first time since the original R15 million annual donation limit was set by Parliament in 2018 that it’s being raised.

But My Vote Counts said a balance needed to be struck between adequately funding political parties and protecting politics from undue influence from private interests.

The organisation’s Joel Bregman: "We can see from the four years of quarterly disclosures under the act, that a handful of wealthy individuals already dominate our private political funding landscape. Giving donors the ability to now donate R30 million exacerbates this problem, gives them more power to influence and makes parties more susceptible to influence."

Bregman also believes raising the disclosure limit will lead to greater secrecy and make it harder to determine whether donors are benefiting from their donations.

"Instead of pushing us towards greater transparency, Parliament, and now the president, has pushed us in the opposite direction."

My Vote Counts says its next steps will be informed by a court judgment awaited on its challenge of the constitutionality of the Political Funding Act.