R2K welcomes the signing of the Political Party Funding Act

23 January 2019

The Right2Know Campaign welcomes the signing of the Political Party Funding Act as a victory for transparency and the voters’ right to know.

This is a long-overdue step towards a more transparent and accountable democracy, in which voters have basic information about who funds our political parties.

For decades, civil society organisations have campaigned for an end to the secret deals between politicians and and their donors. The Political Party Funding Act is the result of those efforts.

However, we are disappointed that this comes more than five months since My Vote Counts and the Right2Know Campaign called on President Ramaphosa to sign the Bill when it was already on his desk. The delay ensures that the law’s transparency clauses will not be implemented before the 2019 national elections. Once again, political parties will be able to receive millions of rands from secret sources to campaign for our votes, without having to account for one cent.

In recent months alone, South Africa has been rocked by new scandals of secret funds which continue to fuel corruption in our politics – from VBS to Bosasa.

Nonetheless, South Africans can celebrate the signing of this law as an important step forward for transparency and democracy. But we must also keep the same vigilance and activism which prompted this Bill in the first place: we urge all South Africans to continue to demand access to information and transparency from political parties in the lead-up to the 2019 elections. This is a chance for every political party to take the people of South Africa into their confidence by disclosing their finances.

Issued by Busi Mtabane, Right2Know Communicator, 23 January 2019