Lobby group My Vote Counts may return to court seeking to test the constitutionality of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) relating to donations for political parties, says a BDlive report. The group had given 13 political parties until Friday to respond to PAIA requests for information. My Vote Counts co-ordinator Janine Ogle reportedly said only four parties had responded. The group would weigh up its options, but may turn to the courts, she added. In 2015 My Vote Counts unsuccessfully sought to compel Parliament to pass legislation that obliges parties to disclose their sources of funding. In a majority ruling in September 2015 the Constitutional Court held that though the group maintained PAIA had shortcomings, it should have sought to attack its constitutional validity in the High Court . Ogle said on Friday the lobby group would publish the results of its PAIA requests soon. Executive secretary at the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution Lawson Naidoo reportedly told BDlive: ‘Political parties play a very public function, so to try and hide behind that privacy is an anathema. There must be a way to get through to the issue of forcing them to disclose information,’ he said.

Full BDlive report

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