The National Assembly adopted the Promotion of Access to Information (PAIA) amendment bill on Wednesday. The bill will now pass to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) for consideration, according to parliament. Once made an act of law, the bill will require that donations of over R100 000 and those making the donations are revealed by political parties.
The PAIA act was found to be unconstitutional in June last year by the country’s apex court. Parliament was ordered to amend PAIA and was given 18 months to “remedy the defects” in the act.
According to the amendment, political parties will have to create and keep records of any donations exceeding R100 000 and reveal by whom the donations were made. Loans and sponsorships would also have to be recorded, among other things. The records have to be made available to the public every quarter and will have to be kept for five years.
In other news – Sanef will not appeal EFF Equality Court’s judgment
The South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) says it has opted not to appeal the Equality Court’s judgment in its application to have the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and its leader Julius Malema interdicted from harassing journalists.
The application was brought before the court by Sanef and journalists Ranjeni Munusamy, Barry Bateman, Adriaan Basson,Pauli van Wyk and Max du Preez to have the party and its supporters interdicted from intimidating journalists on both public and social media platforms as they felt that Malema and his supporters engaged in hate speech while addressing journalists. However, the Equality Court dismissed the case, ruling in favour of the political party. Read more
Source: eNCA
