Speaker must take action on hundreds of unanswered questions

I have written to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Max Sisulu, to express my concern that, as of today, 215 parliamentary questions posed by the Democratic Alliance have not been answered by the executive.

A copy of that letter follows below.

The failure of the executive to respond to questions posed to it is disrespectful of the parliamentary process, and prevents parliamentarians from properly holding the executive to account. As such, I have asked the Speaker to enforce the rules of Parliament and ensure that the executive adheres to their constitutional obligation to respond to parliamentary replies in good time.

Mr Speaker,

I am writing to request your intervention to ensure members of the executive adhere to the Rules of the National Assembly by answering the questions posed to them by Members of Parliament.  In order to fulfil our constitutional mandate as members of Parliament, it is essential that we are able to hold the executive accountable, both collectively and individually for their actions. Parliamentary questions remain one of the essential oversight mechanisms for achieving this.

As at 19 October 2009, 215 questions posed by the Democratic Alliance have not been answered by the executive. On Monday, 26 October, the number of unanswered questions will stand at approximately 418. Some date back as far as 8 June. This, it must be noted, constitutes a violation of the Rules of the National Assembly, since members of the executive are required to reply to written questions within 10 parliamentary working days. For your perusal I attach a list of questions outstanding, indicating the relevant Ministry and the date on which it was published in the Internal Question Paper.

In response to this unacceptable situation, and in accordance with NA rule 117, the Democratic Alliance formally requested that questions for written reply, not answered within the specified period, be transferred to the Oral Question Paper. This assisted to some degree, and prompted several questions to be responded to, but there are still a large number of replies outstanding. Again, the failure of members of the executive to respond breaches the National Assembly rules - in this case rule 114. This rule stipulates that if a question placed on the oral question paper is not replied to on a question day, replies should be submitted in writing to the secretary by midday on the Thursday following the question day concerned. However, a total of 40 questions relating to the Peace and Security cluster, dating as far back as 19 June, which were transferred to the Oral Question paper, once again have not been answered, ostensibly without adhering to the provisions of rule 114. This was done, it must be added, without providing the DA with any reasonable explanation for why these questions could not be answered, and needed to stand over. 

I would also like to bring your attention to the matter of members of the executive deliberately providing incomplete and inadequate replies to questions. These are disrespectful of the Parliamentary process, and inhibit parliamentarians from properly holding the executive to account.  

By not enforcing the rules of Parliament, and ensuring that members of the executive provide clear and complete answers, within the required time, Parliament is in effect not adhering to its constitutional obligation of providing and enforcing mechanisms to ensure that the executive is held accountable for its actions. I therefore request, as a matter of urgency, that you address this issue, and request members of the executive to adhere to their constitutional obligations and the Rules of Parliament, and that the outstanding questions be replied to, in a complete and adequate manner, within a specified timeframe.

I trust that my request will receive your favorable attention.

Yours truly,

Ian Davidson MP
Chief Whip
Democratic Alliance

Statement issued by Ian Davidson, MP, Democratic Alliance chief whip, October 20 2009

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