New administration needs more time to deal with political party funding matter

CAPE TOWN - Parliament could find itself wanting in the Western Cape High Court in August over the removal of limits for receiving and disclosing donations made to political parties.

Parliament was taken to court by lobby group, My Vote Counts, in May over the constitutionality of the move.

But it says the change of administration has not allowed enough time to deal with the matter ahead of its three-week-long August recess.

Just before elections, the sixth Parliament removed from the Political Party Funding Act the R15 million annual limit political parties may receive in private donations and the R100,000 threshold for declaring these.

Until the president declares new limits, it's a free-for-all all, something My Vote Counts says undoes the purpose of the act.

Parliament has until 12 August to indicate to the court why it should not reinstate the original limits.

Parliament's legal unit has advised the House to reconsider its May resolution, giving the president six months to come up with new limits.

National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza said that the new administration needed more time to grapple with the issues.

"We can write in an affidavit to court to indicate that this matter has served in this structure [the programme committee] and there is agreement by parties that the resolution must be re-looked into by the National Assembly when we come back after recess."

Didiza said that the court's May ruling would be circulated to all parties to bring them up to speed.