Johannesburg - As part of a commitment to accountability and transparency in political party funding, My Vote Counts will launch an interactive online tool called Whose Vote Counts?
My Vote Counts says the tool aims to provide information about who private political donors are and what we know about their business interests.
“Since 2021, 22% (over R61 million) of all disclosed private funding donations have been from the mining industry, followed by the energy industry at 19.4% (R54 million), and 16% from online gambling businessman Martin Moshal (just over R44 million).
“Whose Vote Counts? was developed by Open Up to assist you in your reporting when tracking and assessing the relationships between donors and parties,” added the organisation.
“With Whose Vote Counts? you can see not only the sources of funding for political parties and their numerous interests, but also understand in more detail how trusts are set up to fund political parties. It does this through graphs and other visuals,” said My Vote Counts.
Meanwhile, ActionSA announced on Thursday that it was in the process of filing papers opposing elements of the litigation launched by My Vote Counts (MVC), who recently filed papers in the Western Cape High Court. MVC’s papers seek, among other things, to remove any disclosure limit for donations received by political parties.
ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont said that from the outset, it must be stated that ActionSA was arguably the most compliant political party in respect of the Political Party Funding Act (PPFA).
“We continue to disclose donations and file audits with clean audit outcomes,” he said.
Beaumont said the real-world experience of law-abiding parties like ActionSA was that South Africans who donated to parties did so out of a love of their country and a desire to see change, with many recognising ActionSA as an essential vehicle to the project of change in South Africa.
“Many donors choose to donate below the R100 000 disclosure limit out of a real and justifiable fear of experiencing reprisal from the ANC or DA. Removing this disclosure threshold will dissuade many from contributing to new emerging parties like ActionSA, and leave such parties to compete with established parties who, despite being in decline as South Africans reject them, continue to award themselves a fortune in taxpayer funding,” said Beaumont.
Beaumont said ActionSA was not opposed to the principles of transparency behind disclosing party funding.
“We remain open to engaging MVC should they wish to engage in the interests of a robust multi-party democracy functioning effectively for the millions of South Africans who seek change in their country, but for whom these ambitions do not find expression with established political parties,” said Beaumont.
The Star