Minister Van Rooyen potentially aiding cover-up of ANC service delivery failures
24 February 2016
The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Des Van Rooyen, and his Department are falling short in one of their most basic obligations: adequately responding to parliamentary questions.
Instead of providing comprehensive answers in a timely fashion, the standard response is to pass the buck to municipalities.
No less than 20 questions submitted toward the end of last year were returned with a ‘cut & paste’ answer indicating that the “this information has been requested from the [the metro or municipality in question] and will be communicated to the Honourable Member when it is available.” No further information has however been received on any one of these questions.
This disingenuous strategy allows the question to be marked as answered on the parliamentary system, letting the Minister and the Department of the hook. The DA will not stand for this.
I have therefore taken the step of resubmitting all inadequately answered questions, as well as a raft of new ones, with a view to getting a full picture of the state of governance in our municipalities.
The ball is now back in Minister Van Rooyen’s court. I urge him to ensure that comprehensive answers are provided to all our questions as a matter of urgency. South Africans must be given the opportunity to hold government officials to account; responding adequately to parliamentary questions is vital to this.
Their failure to provide information relating to service delivery and municipal spending indicates that the Minister and his department have no intention to subject themselves to any form of parliamentary oversight. One can only deduce that they are attempting to hide ANC governance failures ahead of the looming election.
The DA will not relent in our effort to expose poor service delivery and municipal mismanagement. All South Africans deserve competent local governments that put the needs of citizens first and build vibrant, safe and well-serviced communities.
Statement issued by Kevin Mileham MP, DA Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, 24 February 2016
