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Parties back funding probe

All the parties in Parliament have backed the ANC’s call for an ad hoc committee to be established to examine the regulation of party funding. But they also want such a committee to investigate the investment arms of parties that fund them and the tenders used to inject funds into party coffers. At a meeting of the programming committee yesterday, ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu introduced the matter - and all the parties backed the proposal. This followed the approval of the ANC proposal by chief whips of all the parties on Wednesday. Mthembu said since they made the announcement last week, a number of civil society organisations have also backed the proposal.

He said it was important for the public to know who was funding their parties. “There has been an outcry by civil society that parties do not disclose who their funders are,” he said. But new regulations would force all the political parties to disclose their funders. Mthembu said this was to avoid parties being negatively influenced by business. His counterpart in the DA, John Steenhuisen, said they fully supported the establishment of the ad hoc committee to look into the matter. DA deputy chief whip Mike Waters said one of the principles was that investment arms of parties must be exposed. This would also include the use of tenders to fund parties. The IFP’s Narend Singh said they fully supported the disclosure of party funders. They also wanted the ad hoc committee to get to the bottom of the issues raised.

Lawyers for Parliament told the programming committee they would follow up on the case that is before the high court, and report on the progress at the next meeting. An NGO, My Vote Counts, has taken the parties to the Western Cape High Court to force them to disclose their funders. The matter has been put on the roll for August. Mthembu had said they wanted the ad hoc committee to have completed its work by the end of the year.

Source: www.iol.co.za

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Parties back funding probe

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