Rabia Mayet | rabiamayet@radioislam.co.za

Researcher at lobby group My Vote Counts, Joel Bregman, spoke to Radio Islam International with regards to the group’s return to the Western Cape High Court on Monday in its challenge to the electoral matters amendment act, signed into law this year.

In 2021, Parliament had passed regulations requiring political parties to disclose funding from private donors.  Earlier this year, the law was amended, effectively removing the limits for declaring donations previously prescribed in the Political Party Funding Act. Bregman stated that the laws were ‘poorly thought out’, but with no ‘nefarious agenda.’

The limits in the act include the ‘threshold to disclose’ funding of R100 000 on a quarterly basis whether in cash or kind, and the ‘upper annual limit’ of R15 million that a single donor can give to a single party within a financial year.

Efficacy of these regulations before the amendment of the bill was fraught with irregularities. Apart from donors; political parties also receive funding from the state, have their own investment vehicles, and take out loans from financial institutions. Bregman said that although political parties do understand the need for these regulations, resistance from all parties to open up their books is expected.

My Vote Counts is asking for the court to ‘reinstate these two limits’ so that ‘regulations can be put back in place’. Without these laws in place, political parties are free to take funding without disclosure. ‘We’ve seen the damage that can do,’ said Bregman, adding that we ‘cannot go back to a regime of secrecy,’ where there is no transparency in place.

Listen to the full interview on Sabahul Muslim.