DA is leading the way in Parliament
31 July 2014
Today the Democratic Alliance announces quantitative measures of our performance in Parliament, for the first term of this Fifth Parliament.
Over 4-million South Africans voted the Democratic Alliance (DA) into the position of Official Opposition, and gave us a mandate to hold the governing party and the Executive to full account.
That mandate requires that the DA pursues all available Parliamentary channels to expose irregularities, corruption and inefficiencies by the Executive.
These channels are the same means available to every party in Parliament, and include Written and Oral Questions to Ministers and the President, Motions with Notice, Motions without Notice, Declarations, Noting of Objections, and calling for Divisions on Votes in the House.
Also, since the decision in Ambrosini V Speaker of the National Assembly, ithe DA has strategically used Private Members Bills to ensure that legislation before Parliament is in the interest South Africans, and drives job creation, aligns with the NDP and most importantly with the Constitution.
This term the DA caucus has endeavoured to maximise these opportunities in order to deliver real and meaningful opposition.
We are therefore pleased to announce that in this term the DA has:
Questions
Asked 710 Written Questions of the Executive; of which 390 (or 55%) have gone unanswered -
The three worst performing Departments, in this regard have been:
1. Transport (27 outstanding replies)
2. Basic Education (27 outstanding replies)
3. Social Development (25 outstanding replies)
Motions
These have dealt with issues that matter the most to South Africans: Jobs, Corruption and Economic Development. We have -
Tabled 13 Motions with Notice;
Tabled 11 Motions without Notice;
Accountability
Made 28 Declarations before Votes;
Entered 25 Objections to Votes; and
Called for 5 Divisions on Votes.
Moved to establish the Nkandla Ad-hoc committee.
Taken legal steps to overturn the appointment of Hlaudi Motsoeneng as COO of the SABC, and
Called for the review of E-tolls to be rightfully located in Parliament, rather than Gauteng.
In all, the DA has taken 792 steps of action to hold the Executive to account in order to hold their actions to account in Parliament.
This is in stark contrast to other parties in Parliament. Collectively, other opposition parties have submitted a total of 109 questions in this term.
Most notably, the Economic Freedom Fighters have asked zero questions of the Executive in this term. Likewise the ANC has asked zero questions in this term.
The lack of questions from the EFF and the ANC is a direct sign that they do not intend to hold the Executive to account. Instead, fights are fought about red overalls and personal medical-aid, in place of real substantial debate and holding the executive to account.
When the numbers are counted, it is the DA that has truly led the opposition to the governing party, by a margin of 601 questions over all other opposition parties combined.
Further, it is noteworthy that the in each Division of Votes, the EFF has abstained from voting against the ANC in this term. Even on matters where the EFF has themselves objected; a subsequent vote resulted in their abstention rather than their voting ‘No'.
It is of concern to the DA that since this Fifth Parliament was sworn in on 14 May 2014, the Presiding Officers in the National Assembly and in Committees of Parliament have on numerous occasions delayed decisions to the detriment of effective Parliamentary action.
Instances include something as simple as a long-outstanding determination by the Speaker on the plan for seating of parties in the National Assembly, resulting currently in confusion and uncertainty as to where members should rightfully sit. This has been outstanding since the establishment of the Fifth Parliament.
Additionally, we have seen from the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker a failure to hold the President to his undertakings on submitting his reply to the Nkandla report. In fact, on this matter both presiding officers have allowed the President to delay, for no good reason, and with endless leniency.
They have also failed to schedule a single Oral Question session for this first term of Parliament. Oral Questions are an essential tool to keep the Executive on their toes and keep them promptly accountable to Parliament. The DA has raised this concern in the Chief Whips Forum, but the Speaker and Deputy Speaker have not acted to schedule this session as we have asked.
It is also of great concern that the Deputy Speaker, who has presided over much of this term, has avoided, in the National Assembly, making essential rulings on objections raised by Members. He has instead rather heard objections out and simply proceeded with debates, leaving the objection undecided. This has directly caused time-wasting conflict in the National Assembly.
It is the role of the Presiding Officer to hear objections and to rule on them, in terms of the Rule of Parliament, not to merely ignore them.
These matters, and matters in general around accountability of members of the Executive, will be tackled head on during the next meeting between DA Parliamentary Leader, Mmusi Maimane, and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, as of the Leader of Government Business.
We will implore the Deputy President to not allow the processes of Parliament to be delayed and obstructed by poor performance of the Presiding Officers.
Parliament must foster dynamic and robust debate, but in doing so members and the Presiding Officers must play by the rules.
In the end, South Africa deserves a Parliament that stands up for the best interests of all South Africans. They deserve hard-working MPs, who take their job seriously, and who use every mechanism available to them in doing so.
The DA has done so this term, and we will continue to lead the way in the future.
Statement issued by John Steenhuisen MP, DA Chief Whip, July 31 2014
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