Hiding political parties’ funders is not democratic

Lawson Naidoo, executive secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, often makes insightful comments about the state of our country and what needs to be done.

Sadly, we have a feeling that he is spitting into the wind by calling on all political parties to disclose the full details of their funding before the elections in May next year. The one thing which unites our politicians across ideological, race and even gender lines is their deep reluctance to let us know who pays the piper.

If we don’t know that as voters, we won’t be able to decide for ourselves whether the political pipers are playing the tunes they are paid to.

The Constitutional Court has already said this must happen if South Africa is ever to call itself a true democracy. The court said that the constitutional right to vote will always be incomplete if the voter does not have the full information at his or her disposal.

Transparency will allow the public to see which companies are financially backing politicians – and which of those companies has gone on to win national, provincial or municipal government contracts.

Worryingly, though: why would you not declare a relationship that is innocent?

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