ActionSA Exposes Ministers Who Treat Parliamentary Questions Like Optional Homework
Athol Trollip MP
ActionSA Parliamentary Leader
ActionSA condemns the persistent evasion of official Parliamentary Questions by Ministers, whose chronic failure to respond, even in cases where questions have been formally resubmitted, reflects a worrying contempt for parliamentary oversight and accountability.
Repeatedly, the disregard with which members of the Executive treat responses to Parliamentary Questions, whether through poor-quality answers, malicious compliance or the complete absence of a reply, reveals an Executive that undermines the very mechanisms through which Members of Parliament are constitutionally empowered to hold it to account.
We wrote to the Speaker last year in November raising our concerns with the executive’s non-compliance and have also raised this issue directly with Ministers such as Barbara Creecy in January this year.
ActionSA has submitted 121 Written Parliamentary Questions this year so far, of which a staggering 86 remain unanswered. This means that over 70% of our efforts to hold government accountable have been met with silence. This isn’t mere neglect, but it is an egregious violation of Parliament’s constitutional mandate and a deliberate trampling of our oversight role. These questions are not rhetorical exercises, they are submitted weekly on behalf of our constituents and pertain to the real, everyday impact of government action (or inaction) on ordinary South Africans.
ActionSA has also used this mechanism to expose government waste, particularly the excessive luxury travel costs incurred by Ministers. Notably, both John Steenhuisen and Gayton Mackenzie have dodged answering our questions on the matter since February of this year, refusing to furnish details of their travel expenses. What do these ministers have to hide? ActionSA has already exposed this widespread wastage by ministers on travel to the tune of almost R180 million in just six months in our GNU tracker.
ActionSA is preparing to pursue legal action to ensure that this phenomenon is formally challenged, as we will no longer stand idly by while the critical work of Parliament is systematically undermined.
ActionSA Exposes Ministers Who Treat Parliamentary Questions Like Optional Homework
ActionSA condemns the persistent evasion of official Parliamentary Questions by Ministers, whose chronic failure to respond, even in cases where questions have been formally resubmitted, reflects a worrying contempt for parliamentary oversight and accountability.
Repeatedly, the disregard with which members of the Executive treat responses to Parliamentary Questions, whether through poor-quality answers, malicious compliance or the complete absence of a reply, reveals an Executive that undermines the very mechanisms through which Members of Parliament are constitutionally empowered to hold it to account.
We wrote to the Speaker last year in November raising our concerns with the executive’s non-compliance and have also raised this issue directly with Ministers such as Barbara Creecy in January this year.
ActionSA has submitted 121 Written Parliamentary Questions this year so far, of which a staggering 86 remain unanswered. This means that over 70% of our efforts to hold government accountable have been met with silence. This isn’t mere neglect, but it is an egregious violation of Parliament’s constitutional mandate and a deliberate trampling of our oversight role. These questions are not rhetorical exercises, they are submitted weekly on behalf of our constituents and pertain to the real, everyday impact of government action (or inaction) on ordinary South Africans.
ActionSA has also used this mechanism to expose government waste, particularly the excessive luxury travel costs incurred by Ministers. Notably, both John Steenhuisen and Gayton Mackenzie have dodged answering our questions on the matter since February of this year, refusing to furnish details of their travel expenses. What do these ministers have to hide? ActionSA has already exposed this widespread wastage by ministers on travel to the tune of almost R180 million in just six months in our GNU tracker.
ActionSA is preparing to pursue legal action to ensure that this phenomenon is formally challenged, as we will no longer stand idly by while the critical work of Parliament is systematically undermined.