Johannesburg - The Constitutional Court on Tuesday reserved judgment in non-profit organisation My Vote Counts' bid to have political parties reveal their funders.
The Constitutional Court heard an application for the confirmation of an order of constitutional invalidity made by the Cape Town High Court last year. The court ruled that parliament must amend the act to allow public access to the funding information. I
My Vote Counts approached the high court on the basis that certain provisions of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) should be declared "constitutionally invalid" to the extent that "PAIA does not provide for the disclosure of information regarding the private funding of political parties".
According to My Vote Counts, the omission violated the constitutional right of access to information. The organisation asked the high court to rule that PAIA be remedied to allow for the continuous and systematic recordal of private funding information by all political parties.
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The court ruled that the Act was unconstitutional to the extent that it does not provide for the disclosure of information pertaining to political parties’ private funding sources.
The court refused to direct that the Act be remedied.
The matter was referred to the Constitutional Court for confirmation of the high court’s order of constitutional invalidity.