As the annual parliamentary session drew to a close yesterday, it is clear that the Government of National Unity (GNU) has failed a basic test of democratic governance: accountability to Parliament.
64 parliamentary questions submitted during the year have been allowed to lapse and remain unanswered in terms of Rule 135, a loophole that enables Ministers to simply run out the clock and evade scrutiny. In the final weeks of the session, ministries rushed to submit hundreds of last-minute replies in a superficial show of “compliance” that exposes the GNU’s disregard for Parliament, its rules, and its constitutional oversight role.
Rule 145(5)(a) is explicit: Members of the Executive have 10 working days to reply to parliamentary questions, with a single 10-day extension permitted only where information is genuinely voluminous and approved by the Speaker. These rules exist to ensure timely, accurate and meaningful accountability.
The eleventh-hour flood of responses reveals two truths that the information provided is unlikely to be properly interrogated or reliable and the GNU does not take parliamentary rules or the consequences of breaking them seriously.
The top two worst offenders for failing to provide replies are from the Democratic Alliance, with Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Dean Macpherson in the lead failing to answer 26 questions, followed in second place by Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi with 15. In third place is, ANC Minister of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Maropene Ramokgopa with 8 unanswered questions.
ActionSA has consistently warned that the Executive does not respect Parliament’s oversight role. These failures confirm it. While others have traded opposition benches for Cabinet seats, ActionSA remains the only rational, principled, and constructive opposition committed to real accountability.
ActionSA’s 6 MPs asked 486 questions, accounting for 7.3% of all parliamentary questions far exceeding similarly sized parties such as the PA (9 MPs, 15 questions) and the FF+ (6 MPs, 189 questions).
ActionSA will continue to expose executive evasion, push for reform of parliamentary rules that enable it, and fight to restore Parliament as a genuine forum of accountability in South Africa’s democracy.
GNU’s Contempt for Parliament Exposed as Questions Go Unanswered
As the annual parliamentary session drew to a close yesterday, it is clear that the Government of National Unity (GNU) has failed a basic test of democratic governance: accountability to Parliament.
64 parliamentary questions submitted during the year have been allowed to lapse and remain unanswered in terms of Rule 135, a loophole that enables Ministers to simply run out the clock and evade scrutiny. In the final weeks of the session, ministries rushed to submit hundreds of last-minute replies in a superficial show of “compliance” that exposes the GNU’s disregard for Parliament, its rules, and its constitutional oversight role.
Rule 145(5)(a) is explicit: Members of the Executive have 10 working days to reply to parliamentary questions, with a single 10-day extension permitted only where information is genuinely voluminous and approved by the Speaker. These rules exist to ensure timely, accurate and meaningful accountability.
The eleventh-hour flood of responses reveals two truths that the information provided is unlikely to be properly interrogated or reliable and the GNU does not take parliamentary rules or the consequences of breaking them seriously.
The top two worst offenders for failing to provide replies are from the Democratic Alliance, with Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Dean Macpherson in the lead failing to answer 26 questions, followed in second place by Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi with 15. In third place is, ANC Minister of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Maropene Ramokgopa with 8 unanswered questions.
ActionSA has consistently warned that the Executive does not respect Parliament’s oversight role. These failures confirm it. While others have traded opposition benches for Cabinet seats, ActionSA remains the only rational, principled, and constructive opposition committed to real accountability.
ActionSA’s 6 MPs asked 486 questions, accounting for 7.3% of all parliamentary questions far exceeding similarly sized parties such as the PA (9 MPs, 15 questions) and the FF+ (6 MPs, 189 questions).
ActionSA will continue to expose executive evasion, push for reform of parliamentary rules that enable it, and fight to restore Parliament as a genuine forum of accountability in South Africa’s democracy.