The Western Cape High Court has dismissed the application from advocacy group My Vote Counts (MVC), which sought to have the Political Party Funding Act declared unconstitutional.

This takes place as ActionSA, which opposed the application, welcomed the court’s judgment, saying the application was “misguided”.

The judgment, handed down on Thursday, has prompted My Vote Counts to engage with its legal team to study the court’s decision.

My Vote Counts initiated legal proceedings earlier this year, wanting the donation limitation and disclosure threshold declared unconstitutional on various grounds.

The group contended that all donations should be made public to enhance transparency and accountability, and raised concerns regarding the lack of provisions to address cumulative donations from interconnected donors.

In his judgment, Judge Nathan Erasmus determined that the challenge became moot due to the recent amendments made by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who set the annual donation limit at R30 million — up from R15 million — and a new disclosure threshold of R200,000, increased from R100,000.

“Consequently, the determination of any constitutional challenges here will have no practical effect. As a court of first instance, it is not for us to determine issues which have become moot,” Erasmus said.

The judge dismissed My Vote Counts’ argument regarding the impermissibility of delegating the authority to determine the donation limit and disclosure threshold.

Erasmus said that while Parliament may delegate regulatory authority, it may not delegate legislative authority and that the president’s delegated discretion remained subject to the National Assembly’s direct supervisory role rather than being inappropriate.

“We are of the view that there is no merit in this challenge,” he said.

The judge also said My Vote Counts failed to establish any facts that showed why the Political Party Funding Act infringed particular constitutional rights.

Erasmus added that, contrary to My Vote Counts wanting all donations to be disclosed because the aggregate thereof can affect party behaviour, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) published the sum of small donations received by a party each year.

“A voter can ascertain how much a political party received in small amounts. This is not good enough for the applicant, who wants the identity of the donors to be disclosed without showing why this disclosure is necessary for the exercise or protection of constitutional rights,” he said.

My Vote Counts’ Joel Bregman said they noted the judgment.

“We are studying the judgment and consulting with our legal team,” Bregman said.

He defended their application, saying they approached court to curb elite influence over politics, to strengthen voter accountability over public representatives, and to deepen the right of access to information in order to vote and exercise political rights from an informed position.

“We will continue to advocate and litigate when necessary to achieve these objectives,” said Bregman.

ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont said his party’s legal team successfully argued against a short-sighted attempt to protect the political status quo, where established parties do as they please and evade true transparency and accountability, while seeking to impose unreasonable regulations that would throttle newer political parties.

“ActionSA is proud that our legal team successfully argued against this misguided application, with the court’s judgment correctly finding no merit in parts of My Vote Counts’ arguments and noting that moot issues had been brought before the court,” Beaumont said.

ActionSA was not opposed to transparency in party funding and it has been consistently declaring its funding and exposed non-compliance by other parties with the IEC, he said.

“Regrettably, the now-dismissed MVC application was silent on this widespread non-compliance and instead sought to restrict the work of newer political parties and anyone with a practical understanding of South Africa’s political democracy would recognise that such an application does nothing to advance our democratic project,” Beaumont added.

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za

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