Background and Objectives

The Southern African Regional APNAC conference was held on Thursday 29 th and Friday 30 th September at the picturesque V&A Waterfront in Cape Town , South Africa . This was the first APNAC conference hosted in South Africa after various unsuccessful attempts in the past. It was attended by ruling party and opposition Members of Parliament from various African countries that included, among others, South Africa , Angola , Mozambique , Malawi , Zimbabwe , Kenya , Botswana and Zambia . In addition to the above, the conference was also attended several APNAC Executive members as well as by representatives from NGOs involved in supporting the work of legislatures and elections.

The purpose of the workshop was, among others, to:

•  Discuss and debate new parliamentary challenges in the fight against electoral corruption;

•  Provide a platform for Members of Parliament from various African countries to share; experiences and lessons regarding the fight against corruption;

•  Promote an awareness and interest of APNAC among SADC countries; and

•  To expand the creation of APNAC chapters in more African countries, more so in the SADC countries.

South African context

South Africa was perfect as the conference venue as it provided so many illustrations with regard to one of the main themes of the conference, namely corruption and political party funding. Some of the examples include the recent arms deal scandal, the recent court case of a businessman (Mr Shabier Shaik) and his relationship with Mr Jacob Zuma, the ex Deputy President of South Africa who was recently sacked by Mbeki in a much publicized show of the president's determination to fight corruption.

There are also signs that the ANC received secret donations from British Aerospace. In the Western Cape ( Cape Town ) there is an on-going court case in which 2 MPs are implicated in corruption for awarding environmental rights to an Italian businessman (Count Augusto) to gain environmental rights to build a golf estate. A more recent scandal involves the oil company in South Africa in which PETROSA (an oil company in South Africa) paid a company called IMVUME R11 million, money that was allegedly destined for the ANC.

In another instance, IDASA-SA recently sued five political parties in South Africa to divulge records of the donations each party had received. The parties were challenged based on the Access to Information Act. All the parties (except the Independent Democrats Party) contested the court case with a view that the public did not have a right to know the identity of the donors. The above court case has resulted in a marked reduction of donations to political parties for the up-coming local government elections which are scheduled to take place in early 2006. In a desperate attempt to deal with donor funding of parties, a workshop has been scheduled whereby the political parties, corporate companies and civil society will meet to discuss the funding of political parties.

Apart from providing fodder to the conference discussions, South Africa was selected as a conference venue because, as the economic and political power in the SADC region, South Africa should be playing a leading role in APNAC. APNAC is determined to involve the country's parliament in its campaign against corruption and the goal is to revive the APNAC-South Africa chapter which met its demise during the last parliamentary elections in the country.

Conference Proceedings

Strong opening statements made at the beginning of the conference set the tone for the rest of the meeting and contributed to the overall success of the discussions. In her opening address Hon. Patricia de Lille, Chair of the Independent Democrats Party of South Africa, raised two broad issues for discussion which were:

She concluded by saying that as public leaders it is expected of them to ensure accountability, transparency and good governance. She also expressed a keen interest for South Africa to establish a local chapter of APNAC.

In his opening remarks the Consul General of Canada based in Cape Town re-emphasized that corruption was not unique to any region or system of government and that it is an issue faced by all countries in the world. He cited examples of corruption in Canada as testimony to this problem.

He expressed delight at the fact that the conference was not dealing with abstract issues of corruption but was focused on reviewing real country case studies with the aim of providing concrete guidance of how progress can be achieved and real solutions could be found to fight corruption. He concluded his speech by stating that he saw APNAC as an effective network to mobilize people together to develop and implement strategies to fight corruption.

Hon. Ruzindana, APNAC Chair, highlighted 3 main challenges faced by MPs

in the fight against corruption. These included:

I. Discussion around the African Union Convention against corruption (AUCAC)

The AU Convention on Preventing & Combating of Corruption and Related Offences was adopted by 32 Heads of State in July 2003 in Maputo, Mozambique . To date 10 countries have ratified the Convention ( Libya , Lesotho , Namibia , Comores, Rwanda , Uganda , Burundi , Madagascar, Mali and Tanzania ). However, not all countries have completed the process. Five more countries need to ratify the Convention for it to become effective. It is disappointing to note that none of the countries in the forefront of NEPAD have ratified the Convention (SA, Nigeria , Senegal & Algeria ).

In the light of the above, APNAC has embarked upon a project to sensitize governments and Parliaments about the need and importance to ratify the Convention

The conference discussed the need for all APNAC chapters to work diligently on the Convention and to adopt practical steps that include:

•  Ratifying the Convention;

•  Amending domestic legislation to comply with Convention; and

•  Setting up guidelines to review institutional mechanisms to fight corruption.

II. Instituting APNAC within Parliament and linking it with parliamentary committees

Three questions were discussed: How is APNAC institutionalized in Parliament?; What are the best possible ways of institutionalizing APNAC?; and, How can APNAC link up with committees?

It was agreed that APNAC should work with all committees in a Parliament but more so with “watchdog committees” such as the Public Investment Commission (PIC) and Public Accounts Committees (PAC) and departmental committees since most (more than 65%) of the work of Parliaments is done through committees. Committees have strong mandates and are bi-partisan in nature with hardly any executive interference.

However, committees usually have serious weaknesses (conduct delayed post mortem work) and these should provide fertile ground to institutionalize APNAC by providing assistance such as resources, assistance and research services. Furthermore committees provide better opportunities for interaction and linkages with organizations outside of Parliaments. An example sited was the research conducted for the Goldenberg Commission in Kenya which exposed corruption amongst politicians and bankers was conducted entirely by organizations outside of Parliament. Further, there should be a triangular link between Parliamentary committees, the National Audit Office and Integrity Institutions in the fight against corruption

III. Towards transparent and fair electoral processes

The conference acknowledged that it is difficult if not impossible to eliminate corruption, but it can be, reduced, de-systematized and de-institutionalized. The anti-corruption agenda has local, regional and international dimensions. Manipulation is seen at different stages of the whole electoral process and includes the following:

It is possible to fight electoral corruption through various means which include the transparent conduct of elections, Parliaments playing a key role (oversight) in the fight against electoral corruption, the use of technology to promote electoral integrity, ensuring voter and civic education and through cross institutional cooperation to fight electoral corruption. It was recognized that there is a need to harmonize existing election observation and monitoring standards in the SADC region.

IV. The regulation of private funding to political parties

At present there are no comprehensive laws in the SADC countries to regulate party funding. There are however an initiatives to review the electoral system as part of the good governance agenda. The countries in which political parties receive funding include South Africa , Zimbabwe , Mozambique , Namibia , Tanzania , Malawi , Angola and the DRC while parties in Zambia , Botswana and Mauritius do not receive any.

A case study was provided on party funding in South Africa . It is acknowledged by many parties that public funding is not sufficient to sustain a party and therefore private funding is essential to the survival of parties in South Africa . Political campaigns in the country are very expensive since the country is geographically large and socially very diverse. For some parties such as the ANC it has been easy to source funding for campaigns. Testimony to this is the fact that the ANC spent approximately R100million in the last elections compared to the DA party that spent +-R40-50million. Therefore, there is need for an urgent voluntary compact between the parties and donors to find a creative way in dealing with the issue of party funding. Failure to do so would result in the long term harm for South Africa and the continent.

The Conference however agreed that that political parties form the core of any democracy and that they need to be adequately funded since no party is able to function without money. The funds that a party possesses determine the extent to which it is able to publicize its party and its message.

This subsequently distorts the ideal functioning of a democracy since the focus is not only on the message but its ability to disseminate the message. Party funding should therefore be complimented by a vigilant and vibrant civil society so as to ensure checks and balances.

Three options of funding political parties exist which include the autonomous, transparency and advocacy options. There are equally three types of regulatory frameworks which are as follows:

•  Bans (mainly sources of funding such as foreign funding to political parties)

•  Limits regarding how much a candidate is able to spent on campaigning etc.

•  Disclosures by members and parties regarding the sources and amounts of contributions received.

The reasons for promoting the regulation of party funds are several:

•  Prevention of abuse of funds by parties;

•  Enhancement of fair political competition;

•  Right of voters to know the sources of funding to parties

A number of challenges were highlighted as still being faced by parties and in dealing with the issue of party political funding. These include the following:

•  Political parties in power abuse and misuse state funds

•  Business interests still play a leading role in the funding of parties which results in corrupt relationships with ruling parties

•  Party structures and membership remain weak

•  Regulations of party finances is fragmented and difficult to enforce

•  Public funding is low or non existent in a number of countries

•  The culture of the ruling party accepting the opposition parties as legitimate has in many cases not been entrenched

•  The African Union Convention Against Corruption has not been ratified by many countries

•  Civil society and the media need to be strengthened to become effective monitoring mechanisms

•  Women are excluded from politics due to a lack of funds to pay candidate deposits

Evaluation and Achievement of Expected Results

• The South African conference provided a platform for very lively debates and discussions pertaining to the fight against corruption and fraud. Various speakers willingly shared their country lessons and experiences with the delegates Many of the MPs representing their respective countries reaffirmed their commitment to fight fraud and corruption;

• Furthermore, in countries where the AU Convention against corruption was not ratified, MPs committed themselves to ensuring that the Convention would indeed be ratified. Many of the SADC representatives also promised to initiate the launch of APNAC chapters in their countries;

• In terms of participation, the conference achieved its objective of bringing together most countries of the region. Seven out of the nine countries invited sent representatives, with Mozambique sending the largest number of six people. Very good discussions were held with representatives of these countries, especially the new-comers. For the first time, APNAC got an opportunity to engage Botswana and Angola . It is expected now that follow-up with these parliaments will lead to the establishment of APNAC chapters in the countries where these do not exist yet, namely South Africa, Angola, Mozambique and Botswana;

• With regard to gender balance, the meeting had an attendance of 32 participants, 10 of whom were women, making it a 31.2% representation for women. This is a relative increase from the last regional conference in Chad where the women representation stood at 24%. The conference also presented an opportunity for the network to hold its second workshop for Women Parliamentarians, in a bid to increase the participation of women in the network's activities and thereby attain some relative gender balance;

• Civil Society participation at the conference was excellent and contributed to creating more linkages for APNAC with organizations in Southern Africa . IDEA-International, IDASA and the Electoral Institute of South Africa (EISA) all sent representatives who made a valuable contribution to the discussions. Of note-worthy presence also was SUNY-Kenya who made an excellent connection between the work of APNAC and parliamentary committees;

• Sterling logistical support rendered by staff from the Victoria and Alfred Hotel certainly added to making this conference truly remarkable. Cape Town proved to be a very convenient venue for the conference in terms of access and facilitation;

• One major drawback to the conference experienced was the inability to engage other parties of the South African parliament. The conference participants from the country all belonged to one opposition party, the Independent Democrats. It would certainly be useful to engage the government party ANC in the work of APNAC in the future; and,

• Finally, conference participants were also disappointed by the absence of press at the conference to record all the important discussions taking place. Usually, the press and protocol issues are handled by the host chapter anytime APNAC holds one of its regional conferences. Unfortunately, South Africa did not yet have a chapter and thus it became impossible for the conference organizers to attend to such matters as the press and protocol.

Resolutions of the Conference

The participants identified several areas for follow-up in their fight against corruption and resolved to do their best:

•  Promotion of the Access to information law, especially in the area of political party funding;

•  Promotion of effective legislation to compel MPs to declare their assets and income. (In Kenya where the law exists, there is a weakness the law this information cannot be made public for scrutiny by citizens);

•  Establishment of APNAC chapters in those countries of the SADC region that do not have them and the active participation of MPs in this network

•  Identification of opportunities for waging war against corruption (through committees)

•  Identification and formulation of practical and specific project to fight corruption

•  Playing a key role (oversight) in the fight against electoral corruption, especially in the monitoring of elections.