NDZ’s evading Parliamentary oversight disgraceful
19 May 2020
The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s failure to attend a Parliamentary meeting on Monday to discuss the R20 billion allocated to municipalities to use for relief during the Covid-19 pandemic is yet another indication of her disregard for Parliamentary oversight.
She used the drafting of level 3 lockdown regulations as an excuse for not attending her department’s budget briefing to the Select Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Water and Sanitation and Human Settlements meeting on Monday night.
This is not the first time the Minister has missed critical oversight meetings in Parliament. This year she has only attended one committee meeting – the joint meeting with the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs last week – which she left after 30 minutes. Again, using the lockdown as an excuse.
Given the powers that the Disaster Management Act extends to the Minister of CoGTA during a State of Disaster, Dlamini-Zuma is the most critical Minister when it comes to constantly updating Parliamentarians and the public during this time. Her unwillingness to account is testament of her disregard for our democratic processes.
One of the key responsibilities of the Executive is to account to Parliament as the elected representatives of the people of South Africa - not through their deputies or heads of department.
Minister Dlamini-Zuma’s attempts to try and shirk her responsibility also extends further than Parliamentary Committees. Of the 34 written Parliamentary Questions submitted by the DA in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) to her Department this past year, only 17 were responded to. That is half of all our questions unanswered.
Furthermore, her response to Parliamentary Questions from DA MP Dean Macpherson of not having the relevant information readily available has become her standard response to Parliamentary Questions from both the NCOP and the National Assembly.
I have requested the Chairperson of the Select Committee to schedule a meeting with the minister and await his confirmation hereof. While the Minister tries to evade Parliamentary oversight yet again, the DA will continue the fight of holding the Executive accountable in defence of our democracy, especially in this time.
Issued by George Michalakis, DA NCOP member for Security and Justice, 19 May 2020
