Parliament wants stronger oversight over the national executive, saying the time of ministers making excuses only when they want to is “over” and the party political “criticism” of controversial legislation “should no longer be ignored”.
That was the word from Mmusi Maimane, chair of parliament’s standing committee on appropriations, who led a discussion on the body’s strategic plan for oversight in 2025.
“We need to get reports timeously so we can assess them, be heard on our criticisms of legislation like the Expropriation Act and look at the structural best practices to get parliament to play its oversight role over the executive more effectively,” Maimane said.
Some MPs said parliament had demanded that the executive become more “timeously accountability” and there needed to be “better systems to ensure” parliament knew how the executive had responded.
Other MPs maintained that the executive were “non complaint” and suggested that parliament stop approving budgets unless and until ministers stopped “being a law unto themselves”.
Parliament is one of the three arms of the state empowered by the constitution, along with the executive and the judiciary, to balance each other and hold each other to account.
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