For the first time since 1994, senior officials in the Presidency, including President Cyril Ramaphosa and his deputy Paul Mashatile, will make scheduled appearances before a dedicated parliamentary oversight committee.
This comes after the National Assembly on Wednesday adopted a report of its rules committee that established an oversight committee on the Presidency.
The committee was proposed by the DA in the rules committee in October 2024 after it revived their proposal following the formation of the seventh parliament.
It also comes after the previous parliament, in 2023, embarked on international study tours to benchmark how other parliaments exercised oversight on the office of their president.
It was adopted with the support of all parties represented in the National Assembly, with the exception of the MK Party.
This will see Ramaphosa and Mashatile appearing before the newly instituted committee at least once a year to account for policy issues, the budget of the Presidency and any other matter referred to it by the speaker.
This is a major step forwards in strengthening parliament’s oversight role and was a key recommendation in the Zondo commission on state capture
— George Michalakis, DA chief whip
Until now, Ramaphosa accounts to the National Assembly by way of oral questions from MPs once a quarter, while also dealing with written questions from MPs in between.
DA chief whip George Michalakis hailed this development as a “major step”.
“This is a major step forwards in strengthening parliament’s oversight role and was a key recommendation in the Zondo commission on state capture. The DA, who was constantly at the forefront of championing this development, is proud to see our efforts come to fruition in the interest of democracy and the public,” he said.
“The DA also welcomes the two other procedural developments included in this report, which are new rules of the house [such as] the inclusion of rebuttal oral questions during weekly question sessions, which will ensure a more robust process of questioning ministers, and the establishment of a dedicated petitions committee for the first time since 2012, which will hopefully lead to public petitions being dealt with more effectively.”
Parliament’s spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said the committee on the Presidency will comprise 11 MPs on a proportional representation basis:
- four coming from the ANC;
- two from the DA;
- one from the MK Party;
- another from the EFF; and
- three representing smaller parties.
TimesLIVE
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