My Vote Counts v Speaker of the National Assembly
South African legal case / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In My Vote Counts NPC v Speaker of the National Assembly and Others, the Constitutional Court of South Africa dismissed an application which sought to compel Parliament to pass legislation mandating the disclosure of political party funding information. Split seven to four, the court held that the application transgressed the principle of subsidiarity and separation of powers.
My Vote Counts v Speaker of the National Assembly | |
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Court | Constitutional Court of South Africa |
Full case name | My Vote Counts NPC v Speaker of the National Assembly and Others |
Decided | 30 September 2015 (2015-09-30) |
Docket nos. | CCT 121/14 |
Citation(s) | [2015] ZACC 31 |
Court membership | |
Judges sitting | Mogoeng CJ, Moseneke DCJ, Cameron J, Froneman J, Khampepe J, Madlanga J, Nkabinde J, Jappie AJ, Theron AJ, Molemela AJ, Tshiqi AJ |
Case opinions | |
Decision by | Khampepe J, Madlanga J, Nkabinde J, and Theron AJ (Mogoeng CJ, Molemela AJ and Tshiqi AJ concurring) |
Dissent | Cameron J (Moseneke DCJ, Froneman J and Jappie AJ concurring) |
Keywords | |
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The matter was heard on 10 February 2015 and decided on 30 September 2015. The application by My Vote Counts, a non-profit organisation, posited an interaction between two constitutional rights – the section 32 right to access to information and the section 19 right to vote – which it argued imposed a constitutional obligation on Parliament to make legislation promoting systematic transparency in party funding. While the minority endorsed this argument, the majority declined to evaluate its merit. According to the majority, the applicant's complaint was justiciable only as a challenge to the constitutionality of the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000, which regulated the right of access to information, and any such challenge should be heard by a lower court.