President Zuma must answer questions on Thursday     

25 November 2014

The Democratic Alliance welcomes the decision by the Speaker of the National Assembly to schedule a special sitting of the House on Thursday, 27 November. 

The first order of business must be to call President Zuma to answer questions in the House.

A statement from the Presidency today arguing that President Zuma is fulfilling his duties to Parliament is fundamentally wrong. 

The President has failed to meet his obligation in terms of the Rules to appear in Parliament four times a year, once per quarter, to answer oral questions. His only such appearance, on 21 August 2014 dealt with just three questions.

The President attending a sitting of the House, or delivering a speech, is irrelevant to his constitutional and parliamentary duty to answer oral questions. 

When the President sits and observes Parliament that does not in any way make him accountable to Parliament, as oral questions do.

Since November 2013, President Zuma has attended just one oral question session and answered only three oral questions. That is a fact that the President cannot escape. 

Even since his inauguration in May, he has not answered a full session of oral questions, and has attended only one session.

The President is elected by Parliament and he is bound to account to Parliament through oral questions, as per Rule 111 of the National Assembly.

The DA will take the ANC to task in the Chief Whip's Forum today, and will once again argue for the President to be summoned to answer questions on Thursday.

If Parliament can be recalled to discuss a report of the Powers and Privileges Committee, then it can be recalled for an oral question session to the President. 

Statement issued by Mmusi Maimane MP, DA Parliamentary Leader, November 25 2014

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