Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe is clamping down on ministers who fail to answer Parliamentary questions and demanding answers.

Replying to questions in the National Assembly on Wednesday, he conceded that a large number of questions were not answered last year by the December 15 deadline set by Parliament.

Motlanthe said that he had written to all ministers with unanswered questions and asked for an explanation for each unanswered question, as well as the steps they would take to ensure they answered all questions submitted to them this year.

"I will then be reporting to Cabinet where further discussions on the matter will take place," he said.

Feedback to the Assembly would then be provided through the Speaker Max Sisulu.

Motlanthe repeated that it was also up to the House to discuss the issue in the rules committee and decide whether it wanted to institute any sanctions against ministers not answering questions.

However, he was heartened by the responses received from some ministers to the letter he sent.

"The responses that I received from some of the ministers has actually heartened me that indeed, this is a problem that we can resolve without resorting to any draconian measures.

"My proposal is that we should have a meeting with the presiding officers [of Parliament] and the chief whips [of political parties] to look at this issue and I'm quite confident that, even from Cabinet side, we will be able to correct this slackness."

This meeting should look into the issue in further detail and what steps could be taken to ensure questions were responded to in the interests of transparency and accountability, he said.