00:00Money has already started being expended by political parties ahead of the 2025
00:05general election and head of the People's Roundtable David Abdullah says
00:08there is nothing by way of legislation which forces those parties to account in
00:13that regard. Abdullah refers to the representation of the People's
00:17Amendment Bill 2020 which has been before the Parliament since that year
00:21further pointing to an extensive process which took place in the drafting of the
00:26bill. Abdullah states that the legislation has been before a joint
00:29select committee for years and the People's Roundtable now plans to embark
00:33on a campaign to address the issue. It's not a mass public campaign so we're not
00:38looking for thousands of signatories. We are on a campaign to have civil society
00:43organizations, business organizations, trade unions, women's organizations,
00:47community-based organizations, professional organizations, civil society
00:53generally to support our campaign calling on the Parliament to have the
01:02bill come out of joint select committee and onto the floor of Parliament to be
01:09debated and passed. The People's Roundtable notes that if that is done
01:13these political parties will among other things have to provide audited financial
01:18statements and all campaign contributions above certain amounts will
01:22have to be made public. It would provide for state funding up to a certain amount
01:28for all political parties that have gotten a certain number of votes in
01:32previous elections. The regulating body is to be the Elections and Boundaries
01:36Commission. Very far-reaching legislation and our campaign will be on this issue
01:41and so we are launching this campaign today and to properly engage so that
01:48civil society is aware and the public is aware of the existence of this
01:52bill because most people don't know it exists and doesn't know that it's before
01:55joint select committee and the reports of the joint select committee are very
01:59difficult to locate on the Parliament website. I tried and can't locate them or
02:02can't download them. It's very very problematic. So we call you on the
02:06Parliament to make sure that the committee reports that were saved and
02:10therefore are public are available easily on the Parliament website. On another note
02:16Abdullah says coming out from the civil society crime summit last year several
02:20recommendations that were made and submitted to various ministries and
02:24government stakeholders were largely ignored. This included more manpower, more
02:30vehicles and making the Financial Intelligence Unit an independently
02:35constituted body. And therefore it was no surprise in some respects that the
02:40government then resulted on the 30th of December last year to introduce or
02:45proclaim a state of public emergency with the aim of giving the police and
02:52the Defence Force more power to go after those engaged in violent crime, the gangs and so on.
03:01Abdullah says the effectiveness of the state of emergency will only be
03:05evident when it is concluded based on whether people are charged and brought
03:10before the courts. The People's Roundtable comprises about 13 civil
03:14society organisations.
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