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The toxic subject of political party funding continues to contaminate our politics and undermine the Constitutional principles of accountability and transparency, as recent scandals involving both the ANC and the DA have again shown.

For progress to be made in addressing the issue, both parties must adopt positions based on principle and not expediency. DA leader Helen Zille’s statement that the DA will introduce regulatory legislation requiring the disclosure of donations made to parties only when it “comes to power” is disingenuous and disappointing, says the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC).

Speaking in Cape Town today, CASAC Chairman Dr Sipho Pityana said:

“Helen Zille’s position is disingenuous. The DA is already in power – in the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape provincial government. It is even more important that we know who funds them. With power comes responsibility and it is time the DA accepted that the public is sick and tired of this issue. Trust in elected leaders and their political parties is rapidly declining, threatening our hard-won democracy.”

There is no evidence that donors to the DA will suffer reprisals. When AngloGold Ashanti decided to declare its donations to the DA it suffered no such reprisal. In fact the then Secretary-General of the ANC, Kgalema Motlanthe, congratulated AngloGold on adopting such a principled position.

CASAC calls upon all political parties to take immediate action to regulate political party funding now, before the start of the 2014 election campaigns. It must be recalled that political parties declared to the Cape High Court in 2005 in the case brought by Idasa that they will introduce appropriate legislation to regulate party funding. They have to date failed to abide by this promise. The ANC has also at its Polokwane Conference in 2007 adopted policy positions in favour of the regulation of political party funding.

Executive Secretary of CASAC, Lawson Naidoo, added:

“There is no reason for further delay. The issue is clear; the policy options are well spelt out; the necessary research has been conducted. We cannot afford to go through another whole election cycle with dodgy donor secretly donating so as to secure elicit benefits from parties that govern over us – the DA as well as the ANC”.