President and ANC not to be trusted with sway over political parties’ funding

7 February 2024  

The FF Plus strongly objects to the proposed amendments to clauses of the Political Parties Funding Act.

President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC cannot be trusted with making unilateral decisions about political parties' funding.

The Electoral Matters Amendment Bill aims to afford the President greater power to determine the formulas and regulations for the funding of political parties.

He will be able to make unilateral decisions to determine, for instance, the ratio for the proportional and equal allocation of funds, and the minimum and maximum donations parties may receive.

The Bill will amend the Political Party Funding Act to allow the President to issue regulations on funding without obtaining permission from Parliament.

The President has already demonstrated several times that he is biased in favour of the ANC.

The Presidential Handbook serves as an example of how he takes undue advantage of flights at taxpayers' expense, so, he will undoubtedly abuse his powers to benefit the ANC.

Insofar as the party-political funding model is concerned, the FF Plus already demonstrated in 2017 that it is quite willing to approach the Constitutional Court regarding the unfair distribution of funds at the time.

The model allocated funds on a 10% equal and 90% proportional basis. It unfairly benefited the ANC, and the FF Plus was willing to approach the Constitutional Court concerning the matter.

Likewise, the party will once again approach the Constitutional Court should these amendments be adopted.

Justifiably, questions are raised about the timing of this decision. Any matter relating to party funding should much rather be addressed by a new Parliament.

An election campaign cannot be run without funds and this amounts to directly undermining the democracy.

Issued by Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus leader, 7 February 2024