Monitoring Unregulated Party Funding in South Africa: Seminar for Eastern Cape Researchers and Journalists

DATE: 28 September 2005
VENUE: Room 224, Admin Building, Rhodes University, Grahamstown

Please note: This is the second in a series of Provincial seminars. The first took place in the Western Cape and in the next two months similar seminars will take place in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Free State/Limpopo. If you live outside the Eastern Cape and wish to receive notification of these please send an e-mail to Andile Sokomani.

At its heart, the regulation of party funding is a question of political equality. Perhaps the single moment when all citizens experience equality is when they cast their vote at the ballot box. A hard-won right in South Africa, this simple democratic act has immense value to many and is a tangible manifestation of democracy to most. The private funding of political parties is also a necessary prerequisite to ensure that all parties can reach the electorate during the polling process. But lack of control over the private funding of political parties may allow the wealthy to ‘buy’ influence and access through secret donations, drowning out the citizens voice and undermining the equal value of each person’s vote. Unregulated private money in politics raises the real prospect that the wealthy will have undue influence on the government’s choice of policy options.

After nearly 10 years of democracy, the secrecy surrounding the private funding of political parties has not been pierced because there remains a glaring lacuna in South African law: There is no law regulating private funding to political parties. The private funding of political parties remains one of the last ‘legitimate’ avenues by which the private sector, foreign governments or even criminals can extract influence on public officials. The issue is as relevant to national politics as it is at the local level in the run-up to the forthcoming local government elections.

Following the country’s third democratic election – it is important to now give urgency to the debate on the necessity to regulate the private funding of political parties in South Africa and eventually impact on the debate in other democracies in the region.

The broader research community (the media, academics and civil society) has a key role to play in monitoring the private funding of political parties in South Africa. When not initiating investigations (as in the case of Oilgate), journalists and researchers have both kept the public abreast and helped them make sense of scandals such as those involving convicted German fraudster Jurgen Harksen (a well known patron of SA politics - pictured) and the funding provided to the NNP by Count Ricardo Augusto (the Marais-Malatsi affair). These and other ‘scandals’ have proven that unregulated private funding is a problem that negatively affects most South African political parties.

In order to assist the research community to undertake work on party funding the ISS Cape Town based Organised Crime and Corruption Programme have embarked on a joint project with Idasa’s Political Information & Monitoring Service (PIMS). One of the outputs has been the establishment of a new website to monitor the private funding of political parties in SA – Who funds who? (www.whofundswho.org.za). The website, launched in July 2005 has already been awarded a web-award for its content and design.

In order to familiarise researchers and journalists with this tool and provide information about why and how to track private funding of political parties the ISS & Idasa are organising provincial workshops in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KZN and Gauteng between August and December 2005.

We would like to invite you to participate in a half-day seminar in the Eastern Cape that will focus on three main topics:

An Overview of the party funding issue – why this issue matters. What is the potential link to corruption and political inequality?
A Case Study on Party Funding – what have we learnt and what are the challenges of undertaking research on party funding
Who funds who in SA politics – How web-based monitoring of private funding of political parties can be use to the research community

Please note:

Seating for this half-day seminar is limited. Participation will be secured on a first come, first serve basis for journalists and researchers based in the Eastern Cape.
There is no seminar registration fee.
Limited funding (or alternatively a shuttle bus), available only upon application to the organisors, will be provided to cover transport costs for Eastern Cape Delegates who live further than 50km from Grahamstown.

Please complete the seminar registration form and return to:

Ms. Nobuntu Mtwa
Tel: (021) 461 7211
Email: [email protected]