Money, politics and law in the SADC region

This booklet on Money, Politics and Law, provides the reader with current information on public funding of political parties, disclosure of sources of funding, prohibited sources of funding and the connection between money, political influence and corruption. It provides an important discourse on the politics of money and the dangers of an unregulated funding environment for political parties and candidates. As part of the discussion around funding of political parties it can be argued that public funding is a natural and necessary cost of democracy and that, inherent to the work of political parties, is the need for money to pay for their electoral campaigns, to keep contact with their constituencies to ensure accountability, to prepare policy decisions and to pay professional staff for quality research and administration. Also if political parties and candidates get at least a minimum required amount of money from the public purse this has the potential to limit the likelihood of them accepting money from private donors, with the concomitant political agendas and potential to buy influence and accept political favours in return for their generosity.