The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has challenged President Cyril Ramaphosa to sign the Political Party Funding Bill into law.
Earlier the Presidency said it wanted to thoroughly scrutinise the bill to avoid any constitutional problems before signing it into law. Spokesperson, Khusela Diko, said the president wants thorough constitutional and legal scrutiny of the bills.
“It’s not really a delay signing these bills into law. The President has requested a very thorough process where an analysis is done and the constitutionality on these bills. He has also requested a full report on the submissions that have been made during the parliamentary processes. He is quite aware of the urgency of some of the bills that are sitting on the table, including the Public Audit Amendment Bill, the Protection of Information Bill, the Political Party Funding Bill. And they are all receiving the necessary attention.”
The Bill, which regulates party funding, was passed by both the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) and the National Assembly over three months ago.
EFF Spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi expressed his party’s concerns over the delay. “The ANC does not want to have that law because they want to keep their funders a secret, – taking next year’s general elections into consideration and if Ramaphosa is an honourable person then he should answer honestly why and what is the problem that his caucus and himself has in relation to not signing the bill. Because the EFF has already indicated what the problem is and he could just fix them and sign the bill so that we go to the general elections with that law in effect.”
Meanwhile Freedom Front Plus Chief Whip Corne Mulder says there will be serious implications for political parties if the Political Party Funding Bill is not signed into law before the Mini Budget in a few weeks’ time.
“That Bill if it’s not funded means absolutely nothing and no party will be funded in terms of the bill if the necessary funds are not provided for. So, in order to be in time for the next elections necessary funds need to be appropriated in the medium policy statement and has to be debated and brought to Parliament by the 24th of October. So, in order to have that, the necessary funds need to be appropriated as well as the president has to sign the bill before that, – to make that possible.”
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