Ministers skip duties

2010-09-05 14:37

Johannesburg - Nineteen out of the 34 ministers in President Jacob Zuma's cabinet, have failed to appear before Parliament for oral questioning, with no explanation for their absence, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Sunday.

"Such conduct perpetuates the perception that government ministers increasingly regard themselves as above Parliament, rather than accountable to it," party leader Hellen Zille's spokesperson Priya Reddy said.

"The disregard shown by government ministers for the answering of both written and oral parliamentary questions has been a long standing hallmark of the current administration, and those administrations that preceded it."

She said their absence hindered Parliament's ability to conduct effective oversight of the executive and has served to weaken the accountability of government.

According to DA's records, for the 36 times ministers in the current administration have missed oral question sessions, explanations for their absence have been supplied in only 11 cases.

Not supplied reasons

This meant, on two out of every three occasions this has happened, ministers have not supplied reasons for their failure to appear for oral questioning.

"This raises concerns about why ministers no longer feel compelled to inform Parliament when they miss a scheduled appearance before it."

Reddy mention top offenders as International Relations and Co-operation Minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Jeff Radebe, Minister in the Presidency, Performance Monitoring, Evaluation and Administration, Collins Chabane, Energy Minister, Dipuo Peters, Science and Technology, Minister Naledi Pandor and Tourism Minister, Marthinus van Schalkwyk.

She said the DA would write to Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, to bring to his attention the recurring problem of unexplained absences of ministers from oral question sessions, as well as requesting that each minister supply Parliament with reasons for those absences that remain unaccounted for.

Absences noted

Spokesperson for the ANC Parliamentary Caucus, Moloto Mothapo said the absence have been noted and they were confident of an improvement.

He explained that the office of the speaker of Parliament has been in discussion with the leader of government business, deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe on the matter.

- SAPA