By Daniel Itai, Johannesburg, South Africa
South Africa’s current governing party the African National Congress (ANC) has called on the government to increase the money that political parties get.
To date, the ANC receives an annual funding of R164 million (US$10 million) but wants the funding to be increased to R500 million (US$ 30 million).
“Political parties play a greater role in making sure there is service delivery. They are an important stakeholder in communities where they are cementing government rendered services.
Government expects those political parties to ensure that the various investments and projects they have instigated are not disbanded like the issues of vandalism and strikes. It’s about strengthening democratic order like policing community forums, school development forums and business forums amongst others.
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Moreover, we also want to move to a level of transparency so that we all know where party funded money will be coming from,” said ANC’s National spokesperson, Pule Mabe.
However, civic organization, My Vote Counts, has since castigated the ANC for instigating the proposal.
“Political parties are pretty much like businesses they need money for them to run but asking taxpayers to raise their allowance from R164 million to R500 million is not just ridiculous but greedy considering the fact that they get private funding.
If there was proper management there wouldn’t be need for them to call for more taxpayers’ money,” said Sheila Clarke, representative of My Vote Counts.
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