Transparency regarding political party funding is under threat

My Vote Counts warns that raising the disclosure threshold will enable corruption.

- By Nonkululeko Njilo

Civil society organisation My Vote Counts (MVC) is preparing to formally request that President Cyril Ramaphosa release the reasons and full record of considerations behind his decision to ease restrictions on the disclosure of private donations to political parties.

This follows Ramaphosa's move earlier this week to double the disclosure threshold to R200,000 and raise the annual donation cap from a single donor from R15-million to R30-million.

MVC's project lead for money in politics, Joel Bregman, told Daily Maverick: “It's clear that this is going to deepen secrecy around political funding... [when] we have a country where we should be pushing towards greater transparency in our political funding space to ensure accountability, to ensure that corruption isn't happening, that undue influence isn't being exerted by private interests on our politics.”

With the new R200,000 threshold, individuals or a group of connected companies owned by the same people can each make repeated donations just under the limit. Together they could add up to millions that would be completely hidden from the public.

Political party funding transparency remains a longstanding issue in South Africa and is closely linked to its history of corruption and State Capture. This connection was made clear in the findings of the Zondo Commission, which showed how influence can be bought and how that distorts government tenders and democratic processes.

The first volume of the State Capture Commission's report stated: “It is a matter of extreme concern that the evidence given at the commission establishes a link between the corrupt granting of tenders and political party financing. Such a link can represent an existential threat to our democracy.”