Judgement reserved in the My Vote Counts case

The Western Cape High Court has reserved judgment in the case of My Vote Counts challenging the Electoral Matters Amendment Act. The Lobby Group wants the court to re-instate two key limits in the Political Party Funding Act that have been removed since the Electoral Matters Amendment Act came into effect.

My Vote Counts wants the court to re-instate the R100 000 disclosure threshold and R15 million annual donation to political parties. It says the absence of these limits in the Electoral Matters Amendment Act has created a gap in the legislation.

“At the moment, I can give a party R100 million. There’s no legal obligation for the party or the donor to make this public,” says Joel Bregman, Senior Researcher: My Vote Counts.

The Act came into effect after it was signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa in May this year. Before it came into effect, the Political Party Funding Act had a disclosure threshold for funding political parties.

“There was a very real reason why these came into being in the first place when the Party Funding Act came into being in 2021 it was to enhance accountability, transparency to clamp down on corruption on the free flow of private interests in our politics so without those we have been in a party funding free for all and we need to close this lacuna because we don’t want private interests to be buying up our politics,”

The President together with the Speaker of the National Assembly Thoko Didiza, the Ministers of Home Affairs Dr Leon Shreiber and the Minister of Justice Thembi Simelane are cited as respondents. They have all indicated that they will abide by the court’s decision.

Video: Political Party Funding Act – Judgment reserved in My Vote Counts case: Asanda Ngoasheng