The Western Cape High Court has ruled that Parliament must amend the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) so that political parties will be compelled to disclose the source of their private funding, says a News24 report. Judge Yasmin Meer ruled that Parliament has 18 months to rectify ‘inconsistencies’ in PAIA, following an application from the NGO, My Vote Counts.

Respondents included President Jacob Zuma, the Minister of Home Affairs, the ANC and all 12 opposition parties. Meer said information about private funding is ‘reasonably required’ for the effective exercise of the right to vote and to make political choices by the Constitution. It is declared that the PAIA was inconsistent with the Constitution and invalid insofar as it did not allow for the recordal and disclosure of private funding information.

The ruling, which will now go to the Constitutional Court, will ‘once and for all’ close the debate on whether or not parties should reveal their funders, says Vincent Smith, chair of Parliament's ad hoc committee looking into party funding. ‘I think the court ruling is, in fact, an injection into the work of the ad hoc committee, so I welcome it,’ Smith is quoted as saying in a Business Day report.

The DA's James Selfe queried whether the ruling was necessary. ‘Our lawyers are studying the judgment, but one question that arises is whether (the ruling) is now superfluous because it enjoins Parliament to amend the Promotion of Access to Information Act to make it possible to access information on party funding when, in fact, Parliament is doing just that. ‘We are not sure whether it’s necessary to amend PAIA,’ Selfe said, adding an appeal was unlikely.

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