21 Aug 2024

Three bills have passed committee stage after thorough scrutiny by legislators, consultations with key stakeholders and voting to approve their third reading.

They include Access to Information Bill of 2024, Data Protection Bill of 2024 and Political Party Funding Bill of 2024.

The Access to Information Bill seeks to provide for the right of members of the public to access information in the possession of public authorities. The bill, containing 57 clauses, passed committee stage without amendments.

The Data Protection Bill, containing 101 clauses, also passed committee stage with a few amendments after majority vote. Once assented, the new legislation would make provision for continuation of the Information and Data Protection Commission and also regulate protection of personal data and further ensure that individuals’ privacy in relation to their personal data is maintained.

On one hand, amendments to some clauses in the Political Party Funding Bill, proposed by Member of Parliament for Mahalapye West, Mr David Tshere, were rejected.

The Bill, containing 13 clauses, seeeks to provide for the regulation and funding of political parties and related matters.

Motivating the amendments to some clauses in the Bill, Mr Tshere had requested that it be amended to allow for the 50 per cent of funds to be disbursed to qualifying political parties based on the results as well as the number of National Assembly seats won by the political party in the 2019 general elections and not the impending general elections billed for October this year.

“The intention behind the Political Party Funding was to help political parties in any election, therefore it is unfortunate that the funds will be put on hold, only to be activated after the coming elections,” he argued.

Supporting the amendment, MP for Nkange, Dr Never Tshabang said what was carried in the Bill was against the general understanding of what political party funding was intended for.

“The idea was to fund democracy in good faith. But it seems that has been changed and we are now told funds will not be availed for the coming elections, which is regrettable,” Dr Tshabang said.

Conversely, the initial clause sought to have 50 per cent of the money be disbursed amongst qualifying political parties which had received at least five per cent of the total number of votes cast immediately after the general elections.

Minister of Finance, Honourable Peggy Serame explained that the intention to fund political parties was never to have funds disbursed during an election but within a financial year.

“Funds were to be released in the current financial year after the general elections and not before. Therefore, it will be in order to release the funds any time before the end of this financial year,” Honourable Serame said.

However, the bill was approved for third reading via majority vote.  ENDS