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The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the Deputy President’s commitment that all outstanding questions posed to Members of the Executive will be answered before the end of the year. In his response to my question in the National Assembly on Wednesday, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe acknowledged that although Parliament lacks an effective system of checks and balances to ensure that Members of the Executive answer questions, Cabinet is committed to answer all outstanding questions before they lapse and fall away on 13 December.

Concerned over the manner in which Members of the Executive shy away from their responsibility to answer questions, the DA asked the Deputy President an oral question regarding what corrective steps he will take to ensure that all questions are answered within 10 working days, as prescribed in the rules of the National Assembly. It was brought it to his attention that for 2011 more than 780 written questions remain unanswered of which 613 have been outstanding for more than 10 working days.

In his response, the Deputy President, acknowledging that a problem exists, shifted the responsibility from himself, as the Leader of Government Business, to Parliament by stating that it is up to this House, not the executive, to decide whether the parliamentary rules need to be amended and to enforce change in this regard to ensure that members of the executive answer questions.

On several occasions the DA has reiterated that changes to the rules of the National Assembly are required to ensure that Members of the Executive answer questions not only timeously, but in an appropriate and thorough manner. To this extent the DA has in the past submitted proposals to the Office of the Speaker in order to be considered by the NA Rules Committee. To date, having being submitted in 2009, these proposals are yet to be considered by the Rules Committee.

Pointed to the fact that Members of Parliament are constitutionally mandated to account to Parliament and that it is indeed the responsibility of the Executive to enforce this accountability, the Deputy President confirmed that Cabinet is committed to answer all questions. He elaborated to this extent that all members of the executive have been furnished with a list of all outstanding questions and were reminded of their responsibility to answer all questions.

The DA welcomes this undertaking and I will write to the Speaker of the National Assembly to ask that he liaise with the Leader of Government Business to ensure that this commitment is executed by answering all outstanding questions by the 13th of December. Further, I will once again submit our proposed rule changes to the Speaker and ask that they be considered by the NA Rules Committee.