MOGOENG CJ
the benevolent exercise of a ministerial discretion. This is so because it ultimately
helps to determine whether those elected will handle the bread and butter issues of the
people well. It must, so to speak, be free-flowing.
[71]
There are some good and strong pointers in PAIA itself to what could possibly
be done to properly record and make information on the private funding of political
parties or independent candidates easily or reasonably accessible.54
It cannot be
emphasised enough that it would be erroneous to construe section 32 as conferring an
absolute or blanket entitlement to seekers of any information required from
whomsoever for the exercise or protection of all rights. The ease with which it is
made accessible ought to depend on the nature of the right whose exercise or
protection is sought to be facilitated. If that right self-evidently requires particular
information to be properly exercisable, then a person or entity in need of it does not
always have to explain the need. The right to vote is one such example. It is intrinsic
to its proper enjoyment and its essentiality that all information, that could reveal the
potential disadvantage that private funding could bring about, be recorded and easily
or reasonably accessible.
[72]
It is enough to lay down a principle that requires the State to ensure that the
information be recorded, preserved and disclosable in a reasonably accessible manner
and that it is not to be paid for. Millions of voting South Africans are unemployed.
And even those who are employed need every Rand they earn to meet their basic
necessities. Those who stand to benefit from these people’s vote or participation in
the elections ought to be agreeable to a regulatory framework that facilitates the
recordal, preservation and reasonable access to information that could shed more light
on who they really are and whose favours they might have to return. That information
is indeed essential for voting and imparting information.
54
See sections 52 and 70 of PAIA.
28