Western Cape High Court slams Parliament and President over political party funding

Johnathan Paoli

THE Western Cape High Court has provisionally upheld an application by civil society organisation My Vote Counts (MVC) to declare sections of the Electoral Matters Amendment Act inconsistent with the Constitution.

The court made its ruling on Monday, with Judge Daniel Thulare criticising the handling by the National Assembly of regulations relating to party funding as well as the failure of the executive to pass presidential resolutions concerning amounts, and making a call that any parties taking issue with the amounts to lodge a complaint by August.

The MVC sought for the court to order that until Parliament passes a resolution on the matter, and the President makes a final determination on these limits, the disclosure threshold should remain at R100 000, and the upper limit R15 million.

The Electoral Matters Amendment Act amended the Political Party Funding Act and regulated the private and public funding of independent