Al Jama-ah leader Ganief Hendricks says the ANC MPs of turning their backs against ethical principles when passing the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill on Tuesday. Image: @Aljama_ah
Al Jama-ah accuses ANC of cutting funds for smaller parties
Al Jama-ah’s Ganief Hendricks says funding allocated to political parties and independent candidates will decrease.
Al Jama-ah leader Ganief Hendricks says the ANC MPs of turning their backs against ethical principles when passing the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill on Tuesday. Image: @Aljama_ah
The passing of the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill by the National Assembly on Tuesday was a betrayal of the principles of democracy, says the Al Jama-ah Muslim party.
According to party leader and founder Ganief Hendricks, the Political Party Funding Act (PPFA) is one of the changes that will come into effect after the Bill is passed. This means the funding allocated to political parties and independent candidates will decrease.
“Al Jama-ah has received half of its present funding despite an agreement reached on equity; it seems that ‘equity’ is a meaningless word in the current political climate,” Hendricks said according to The Citizen.
ANC AND DA WILL GET DOUBLE THE AMOUNT- HENDRICKS
He said the changes made to the Bill would lead to the ANC and the Democratic Alliance (DA) getting double the amount of funding while smaller parties like Al Jama-ah would get half.
“The existing formula in the Political Party Funding Act makes provisions for funds based on two thirds proportional and one third equitable; the bill changes this to 90% proportional and 10% equitable,” he said.
Al Jama-ah suggested this was a deliberate attempt by the ANC to cripple smaller parties. Hendricks said the “ANC has committed a great threat to the country’s democracy” by passing the Bill.
‘ANC TURNED IT’S BACK ON ETHICAL PRINCIPLES OF DEMOCRACY’
“The ANC government knows that the smaller parties play a critical role in the present environment, yet it adopted a position that undercut instead of creating a more competitive environment,” he said.
The publication said Hendricks accused ANC MPs of turning their backs against ethical principles, adding they should be “ashamed for such a betrayal.”
“When liberation movements were together in the trenches, we did not duck the bullets proportionally,” he said.
The new Bill also allows the president to determine the upper limits of how much money political parties and independent candidates may accept as donations.
PARTIES THAT WILL BENEFIT THE MOST ARE THE BIGGEST FAILURES, SAYS ACTIONSA
In addition, it empowers the president to determine the threshold at which parties and independent candidates should declare their donations.
ActionSA said the bigger parties that will benefit most from the new funding rules are the same parties that have “either failed in government or have failed in opposition.”
“South Africans had to endure the insult of watching out-of-touch MPs fight over what share of the R1.5 billion of public funding each of them should get while they suffered in cities and towns, farmlands and villages across our country,” said the party’s Alan Beesley.
