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The Democratic Alliance (DA) has identified nine key reports, commissioned by the ANC Government on various issues of national importance, which have been either:

Not released to the public;
Substantially rewritten or edited before being released to the public;
Not referred to Parliament to be debated and considered; or
Ignored, to the extent that the findings or recommendations made in them have not been acted upon.

The ANC's failure or refusal to act is indicative of how the ruling party continuously places its own party political interests ahead of South Africa's and, in doing so, undermines best democratic practice and blurs the line between party and state.

Significantly, most of these reports are compiled at great cost to the taxpayer, money that could have been used to deliver basic services. The DA will be submitting a series of parliamentary questions to determine how much each report cost and, given that they have been ignored, whether the relevant minister deems that cost justifiable.

The reports are:

1. Joint Investigating Team Report

November 2001

The report that was tabled in Parliament was substantially edited by the Executive to remove critical pieces of evidence outlining irregularities in the acquisition process in the arms deal.

2. Van Zyl Slabbert Commission Report

March 2003

The recommendations made in the report for electoral reform have never come before Parliament to be debated and considered.

3. United Nations Report on the Oil- for-Food Programme

October 2005

The allegations contained in the report of payment of surcharges levelled against a number of South African entities involved in the oil-for-food programme have not been investigated by Government or come before Parliament to be debated or considered.

4. African Peer Review Mechanism Report

July 2006

The report that was tabled in Parliament was substantially edited by the Executive to remove findings and recommendations made regarding service delivery failures, the centralisation of executive power and the weakening parliamentary oversight.

5. SABC Blacklist Report

October 2006

The full report that found the SABC had blacklisted a number of outside commentators who were not to be consulted has never been released and has never come before Parliament to be debated and considered.

6. Ministerial Review Commission on Intelligence Report

September 2008

The report and its recommendations for tighter controls on the use of special powers in Intelligence has never come before Parliament to be debated or considered.

7. Report by retired military-generals on political violence in Zimbabwe

around June 2008

A report on post-election violence in Zimbabwe has never been released by the Executive and has never come before Parliament to be debated or considered.

8. Independent Panel Assessment of Parliament

January 2009

The report and its recommendations to strengthen the weakened legislative and oversight powers of Parliament have not been debated or considered by Parliament.

9. KPMG Report into corruption in Parliament

March 2009

The report and its findings of large scale corruption and nepotism in Parliament has never been released to the public and has not come before Parliament to debated or considered.

All nine reports serve to promote and strengthen democracy and improve governance by either exposing corruption, recommending mechanisms to increase oversight and accountability of the Executive and government departments or by calling for the further decentralisation of state power and control.

There are a number of reasons as to why the ANC government refuses to act on these reports. They can be summarised as follows:

They implicate the ANC or its cadres in some or other form of malpractice or corrupt activity (the SABC report, the KPMG report and the UN oil for food report, for example) or
They demonstrate that, despite much rhetoric to the contrary, the ANC often acts to damage South Africa's democracy and its institutions (the Independent Panel Assessment of Parliament and the African Peer Review Report, for example).

The DA believes it is vital that all nine of these reports be released to the public, be properly debated and considered in Parliament and the findings and recommendations contained in these reports be acted on.

We will therefore continue to use the mechanisms available to us such as the Promotion of Action to Information Act, motions calling for debates in Parliament, parliamentary questions as well as our membership in parliamentary committees to ensure that these reports are no longer ignored and sidelined by the ANC.