Western Cape High Court temporarily reinstates limits for disclosing funding by political parties
The Western Cape High Court has temporarily reinstated the previous limits for receiving and disclosing funding by political parties.
This was after Parliament removed them through the passing of the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill and passed a resolution for the president to decide on new ones.
The court said on Friday it could not interfere in setting new limits and trusts that Parliament will see that the situation is urgently rectified.
It follows an application by a civil society group, My Vote Counts, that the removal of the limits is unlawful.
For the last three months, political parties have effectively been off the hook in terms of the amount of money they can receive in donor funding and also not be required to declare it the Electoral Commission.
My Vote Counts went to court in May to have this situation declared inconsistent with the constitution, arguing that it also goes against the principles of the Political Party Funding Act that set a R15 million annual limit for receiving donations.
It also required all donations greater than R100,000 to be declared.
On Friday Judge Daniel Thulare granted MVC a final order that will reinstate these limits until such time as the president sets new ones.
The court said it’s up to Parliament and the President to fix the lacuna in the law – and it can only hand down an order that’s just and equitable in the interim.
The Speaker had filed an explanatory affidavit to the court on the steps taken by Parliament to close the gap, including passing a resolution in May that gave the president six months to set new limits.
-EWN
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