DA calls on Ramaphosa to discipline Dlamini-Zuma for parliamentary questions

31 May 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has formally requested President Cyril Ramaphosa to reprimand and discipline Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, for her persistent failure to account to parliament through the mechanism of parliamentary questions. We also have requested that he take action against a number of other Ministers who are worst performers.

Several Members of the Executive are not respecting their duty to be accountable to Parliament through the mechanism of parliamentary questions. In addition, many who do answer questions do so evasively, and do not respect the expectation that replies should be full and frank

The letter is available here.

Parliamentary questions are a key mechanism of Parliamentary oversight of the Executive. It is the primary tool by which Members of Parliament obtain information from Members of the Executive.

The South African Parliament has a long history of respecting the requirement of the Executive to answer questions. During apartheid, predecessor parties to the DA, and in particular the late Mrs Helen Suzman, used the mechanism of parliamentary questions effectively to expose the apartheid government to scrutiny.

The DA has consistently raised the issue of the Executive’s poor performance in answering of parliamentary questions and attendance at oral question sessions for several years now, both at oral question sessions and through various Leaders of Government Business (LOGB) – including when President Ramaphosa served in that role.

We have collated our latest figures on unanswered parliamentary questions, and can report that the following fifteen members of the Cabinet have the highest percentage of unanswered questions as of 20 May 2020:

You will note that these Ministers also largely failed to table most of the answers they did respond to within the 10-working-days-provision set out by National Assembly Rule 145(5).

In total, 51% of our written questions (141 out of 305) remain unanswered, with many dating back to the first Question Paper of the Second Session of the Sixth Parliament on 13 February 2020.

Over and above this, there is one Minister whose disregard for the institution of Parliament stands out as especially egregious: the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Dlamini-Zuma.

Minister Dlamini-Zuma shows scant respect for Parliament’s oversight role. In every single one of our 24 written questions posed to her since 13 February 2020, the Minister has replied that “the information requested by the Honourable Member is not readily available in the Department”.

Last year, Minister Dlamini-Zuma “replied” with this standard response to 108 out of the 110 written questions we posed to her. So far, the Minister has only submitted 19 amended replies to these, and some of these are also of poor quality.

Her dismissive and perfunctory treatment of questions is a deeply worrying insight into her understanding of the Constitutional requirement that she account to Parliament. This approach to accountability is unacceptable, and should earn the Minister the President's reprimand at the very least.

We have requested the President to:

Include certain clear performance expectations relating to the speed and quality of replies to parliamentary questions, and their regular attendance at Oral Question Sessions, as targets in the performance agreements concluded with each member of Cabinet.

Reprimand the fifteen members of Cabinet with the highest percentage of unanswered questions.

Delegate additional powers to the Leader of Government Business to empower him to enforce the National Assembly’s Rule 145(5) to ensure that questions are responded to within the 10- working-days-provision.

Institute disciplinary steps against Minister Dlamini-Zuma for failing in her responsibility to account to Parliament for the exercise of her powers and the performance of her functions by not responding meaningfully and honestly to any parliamentary questions.

It is unacceptable that Ministers (and in particular Minister Dlamini-Zuma) should be allowed to shirk their accountability to Parliament, and they should be reprimanded and sanctioned.

Issued by Natasha Mazzone, Chief Whip of the Official Opposition, 31 May 2020