A setback for democracy - MVC slams Ramaphosa doubling amount of money parties may receive

News24

a day ago

Lucas Ledwaba/AFP
President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed a proclamation doubling the political donation threshold to R200 000 and the cap to R30 million annually.
This means political parties can take more money with less transparency.
Lobby group My Vote Counts criticises the move, arguing it increases secrecy in political funding and allows wealthy donors more influence.
A setback for democracy - this is how lobby group My Vote Counts (MVC) described the doubling of the limit and threshold for political donations, which means political parties can accept more money from donors, with less transparency.
President Cyril Ramaphosa's proclamation to double the threshold and limit for the donations political parties and independent candidates may receive was gazetted on Monday.
This means that political parties must now declare donations received higher than R200 000 - the threshold - and may not receive donations totalling more than R30 million per year from a single donor - the limit or cap.
Ramaphosa was empowered to do this after the National Assembly in May adopted the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs' report, which empowers the president to set regulations that would allow political parties to get more money with less transparency. It was the ANC's idea to simply double the previous threshold of R100 000 and limit of R15 million.
'This is indeed a setback for our democracy. We cannot allow those in power to jeopardise our democracy and water down constitutionally protected rights for their narrow, self-serving interests,' said Joel Bregman, MVC project lead on money in politics.
READ | Ramaphosa signs proclamation allowing bigger political party donations with less transparency
He said MVC would continue to advocate and litigate when necessary to ensure the Political Finance Act (PFA) is constitutional and upholds the principles of transparency and accountability.
Bregman said, 'The immediate impact of a higher disclosure threshold and donation limit is that we will have more secrecy in political funding.'
Noting that the details of all donations under R200 000 would not be known to the public, Bregman said it is 'an enormous sum for most South Africans, and donations of such amounts should be made public knowledge to facilitate scrutiny of parties' relationships with donors and ensure that donors are not receiving anything in return'.
'Further, when a right is to be limited - in this case, the two rights mentioned above - there needs to be adequate justification for doing so. The State has never provided a legitimate reason why all donations should not be disclosed to the public.'
Bregman said that since disclosures became mandatory in 2021, the data shows that a handful of wealthy individuals dominate the private political funding landscape.
He said:
Doubling the amount a donor can donate to a party in a year to R30 million will give donors an even greater ability to have an outsized influence on our political system. It will also make parties more susceptible to undue influence.
'And because the law does not regulate donations from related parties through the different legal entities they control, wealthy donors can now have an even more significant impact.'
Bregman is referring to the currently perfectly legal situation where mega-donors - like entities linked to Capitec founder Michiel le Roux and mining magnate Patrice Motsepe - make donations to the same party, going over the limit. For instance, Le Roux donated R30 million to the DA in each of the previous three years, while the previous limit was R15 million per year.
He donated R15 million through his private company, Fynbos Ekwiteit, and R15 million through the investment holding company, Fynbos Kapitaal.
READ | R15m donation 'cannot reasonably' have improper influence, govt argues in party funding case
Similarly, Motsepe's companies, Botho Botho Commercial Enterprise, with R10 million, and African Rainbow Minerals and Harmony Gold Mining, with R6.9 million each, donated a combined R23.8 million to the ANC in the 2023/24 financial year.
Bregman said that while MVC recognises the importance of the PFA, it is clear that the law has many defects that limit its ability to achieve its objectives.
'Considering this, in 2023, we initiated legal proceedings to challenge the constitutionality of the PFA.
'After lengthy delays, MVC's case was heard before a full bench of the Western Cape High Court in February 2025. A key component of our challenge is that the original limits were not formulated with reference to empirical evidence and were therefore irrational and unlawful.
We asked the court to find the limits unconstitutional, and refer them back to Parliament for remedying.
'We also asked the court to find that the President's power to make the final determination on the limits (a power that arose through an amendment to the law after our initial papers were filed) was also unconstitutional because it placed too much power in a conflicted officeholder who is both head of the executive and (in most cases) the head of a political party.'
The High Court's judgment in this matter is still awaited.
'Should our case succeed, the amendments to the act will be set aside with full retrospective effect, including the determination of these new limits,' said Bregman.
'While we await judgment, we are considering other legal options to address the president's action. We will also be writing to the president to request that he release the reasons and full record of factors that were considered as he applied his mind to this matter.'