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The IFP has ridiculed the calls for more effective parliamentary and municipal oversight by the Speakers' Forum organised by the KZN Legislature which is itself guilty of concentrating total control over its oversight institutions in the hands of the ruling party.

"KZN Legislature's calls for more effective oversight ring hollow as long as the ANC maintains total control of all portfolio committee chairmanships, including that of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA)," said Leader of the Official Opposition in KZN Blessed Gwala.

The IFP has long argued that parliamentary oversight over the provincial executive would be better served by the chairmanship of SCOPA and possibly other portfolio committees entrusted to the opposition parties as is the international norm.

"The ruling party cannot credibly act as a player in the executive and a referee in Parliament simultaneously and, at the same time, call for more vigorous parliamentary oversight," said Gwala.

The IFP shares the concerns recently expressed by the Auditor-General about the lack of implementation of his office's audit recommendations by most of the country's municipalities which, in turn, leads to compromised service delivery.

"We believe that audit recommendations would be implemented more effectively across all spheres of government if the chairmanship and control over the agenda of the supreme oversight institutions was not in the hands of the political party that simultaneously controls the government," said Gwala.