Civil society organisation My Vote Counts (MVC) has given President Cyril Ramaphosa until October 20, to provide his reasoning for the determination of the new thresholds in the Political Funding Act (PFA).

MVC also made a formal Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) request for the information.

In August, the organisation wrote to Ramaphosa requesting that he explain why he chose to sign the proclamation to double the disclosure threshold and annual donation limit in the PFA.

The new annual donation limit will be R30-million, up from R15-million, and the new disclosure threshold will be R200 000, up from R100 000.

MVC argued that the immediate impact of a higher disclosure threshold and donation limit is more secrecy in political funding.

MVC Project Lead on Money in Politics Joel Bregman explained that the PAIA request calls for all documents that informed Ramaphosa’s Proclamation, including briefing notes, memoranda, analyses or impact assessments, correspondence or consultations with the Independent Electoral Commission or other State bodies, public or stakeholder submissions, draft versions of Ramaphosa’s Proclamation, and any legal opinions or approvals relied upon.

MVC approached the court to have parts of the Party Funding Act declared unconstitutional, specifically the provisions that impose a R100 000 threshold for the disclosure of donations and the R15-million annual limit.

Their arguments sought to reduce the annual limit from a single donor and to require that every donation be disclosed, irrespective of its size.

In 2023, MVC launched legal proceedings to challenge the constitutionality of the PFA.

The case was heard by a full bench of the Western Cape High Court in February and judgment was delivered in August.

MVC’s application was dismissed in its entirety. 

In September, MVC launched an application to the Constitutional Court for direct leave to appeal against the High Court’s order and an application to the High Court for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal.