ActionSA parliamentary caucus leader Athol Trollip has threatened legal action against ministers who fail to respond to parliamentary questions.
He said this while raising concerns over the ministers’ failure to respond to questions, accusing them of ignoring their constitutional duties and treating parliament with disdain.
He said the Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, and the Minister of Sport, Arts, and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, have refused to provide details about their travel expenses.
Sunday World previously reported that after McKenzie disclosed in October that R804 590.71 had been spent for his trip to the Olympic Games in Paris, France, the EFF accused him of embezzling taxpayer funds.
Flights cost R215 976.36, and ground transportation cost R454 005. Accommodation was calculated at R113 271, and the rest was shared among insurance, travelling and subsistence.
Investigating government spending
“What do these ministers have to hide? ActionSA has already exposed this widespread wastage by ministers on travel to the tune of almost R180-million in just six months in our GNU [government of national unity] tracker,” said Trollip.
“ActionSA is preparing to pursue legal action to ensure that this phenomenon is formally challenged, as we will no longer stand idly by while the critical work of parliament is systematically undermined.”
Trollip revealed that 86 out of 121 written questions submitted this year remain unanswered, highlighting that efforts to hold the government accountable have been met with silence.
He said ActionSA has used parliamentary questions to investigate government spending, particularly the high cost of ministerial travel.
Despite voicing their concerns to Speaker of Parliament Thoko Didiza in November 2024 and to Transport Minister Barbara Creecy again in January, he said, not much has changed.
“Repeatedly, the disregard with which members of the executive treat responses to parliamentary questions, whether through poor-quality answers, malicious compliance, or the complete absence of a reply, reveals an executive that undermines the very mechanism through which members of parliament are constitutionally empowered to hold it accountable,” said Trollip.
