The Democratic Alliance has said a big no to the ANC’s attempt to grab money as the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill (the Bill) was passed in the National Assembly yesterday.
The Electoral Matters Amendment Bill is supposed to fix things after the Electoral Amendment Act 1 of 2023 allowed independent candidates to join National and Provincial Elections. But what passed today is a crude try by the ANC to get more public and donor money for themselves to stay in power.
They’re changing how party money is shared out to suit themselves and maybe getting rid of limits on big donations and reporting rules for a while so they can stuff their pockets. None of this has anything to do with letting independent candidates join.
Our Constitution’s Section 236 says that political parties in national and provincial legislatures should get money fairly and in proportion to their support. This is meant to help multi-party democracy.
But Clause 29 of the Bill does the opposite. It gives 90% of the money to parties based on how many seats they have, and only 10% is shared equally. This means the ANC gets an extra R50 million next year, while smaller parties lose out big time. Independent candidates will get less than half what they used to.
Back in 2017, the ANC said in a submission on the Political Party Funding Act (the PPFA) that money should be shared out fairly, but with extra help for small parties to keep things diverse and fair.
Before making any big changes, like how money is shared out, we need to check how it’ll affect things. The Parliamentary Legal Service warned that changing the rules might unfairly hurt independent candidates or small parties unless it’s got a good reason. But the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, couldn’t explain why this is needed.
The Bill’s now going to the National Council, and the DA will keep fighting against these unfair money rules. We’ll push to keep limits on big donations and reporting rules to make sure our democracy stays fair and open to all parties.
By Adrian Roos
