Lapsed parliamentary question on Ramaphosa’s Rugby World Cup outing trips up accountability

So close and yet so far. With this parliamentary question from DA leader John Steenhuisen now lapsed under Rule 135, no reply is required on the costs of the presidential flights, accommodation, catering and more, or who accompanied President Cyril Ramaphosa on his jaunt to Paris. 

Accountability to Parliament on the presidential trip to the 2023 Rugby World Cup final has been sidestepped – unless the question is asked again.

Curiously, Defence Minister Thandi Modise answered another question on Ramaphosa’s travels – 13 people flew with the president to attend Queen Elizabeth’s funeral in September 2022. 

It also emerged that presidential flights have cost R138,882,918 since April 2018, R19-million of which has accumulated since April 2023.

Presidential travel questions fall to Modise because she’s responsible for the SA National Defence Force, which is responsible for presidential transport. 

Initially, ministers have 10 working days to respond – and if they fail to do so, the parliamentary question lapses, or falls away, 20 working days after the last sitting day in the parliamentary calendar, according to Rule 135. 

That deadline was 9 January 2024.

Police Minister Bheki Cele just made it, signing off on a DA question about his travel costs from June 2019 right on deadline day.

The R1,092,713 spent on Cele’s international travel since mid-2019 includes the R33,256 spent for him to attend the Rugby World Cup final in Paris. 

While his trip was sponsored by “a private company”, according to an earlier parliamentary reply, the travel insurance, ministerial subsistence and travel allowance were not – and his personal assistant’s attendance, aside from sponsored meals and stadium access, cost taxpayers R446,339.

In addition, R2,777,314 was spent on ministerial domestic travel since mid-2019, according to this parliamentary reply to the DA.

Cele’s reply was pretty much the last of the 273 written parliamentary questions that were still outstanding by 19 December 2023.

Read more in Daily Maverick: ANC barely asks parliamentary questions while ministers fail to answer on time

On the morning of 9 January, it was still possible for Parliament to potentially achieve its first cleared question slate. 

“This is the first time in the history of the democratic Parliament that we are on the cusp of ensuring that not one question lapses,” said correspondence on the status of questions seen by Daily Maverick.

But it was not to be – Modise’s parliamentary reply on Ramaphosa’s Rugby World Cup final outing failed to arrive by the 9 January deadline. 

Parliament describes questions – written, but also those asked in the House – as a key accountability and oversight tool. 

“Putting questions to the government is one of the ways in which Parliament holds the government to account…”– that’s how the national legislature’s website puts it. But the devil is in the details.

Almost two-thirds of the 4,227 written parliamentary questions, or 2,871, were not answered on time. This signals ministers’ slapdash attitudes to accountability to Parliament – or perhaps party political recalcitrance, as the opposition submitted all but 134 written questions in 2023.

Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni was late in answering 38 of her 39 written questions in 2023, according to the National Assembly’s final 2023 questions status report seen by Daily Maverick. 

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana answered 106 of his 113 written questions late, while Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi answered 81 of her 89 questions late.

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan was late in answering 140 of his 155 written questions in 2023.

Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy has one of the better track records – only 14 of 256 written questions put to her were answered late, according to the final parliamentary report.

Parliament has an established track-and-trace system for questions; all ministries have parliamentary liaison officials and National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula interacts with Deputy President Paul Mashatile in his capacity of leader of government business, or liaison between the executive and legislative spheres of state.

Mashatile is on record as saying how, at every Cabinet meeting, outstanding questions are raised on the back of reports compiled from the tracking system.

Aside from getting written questions answered, the quality of replies remains contested and often sharply criticised.

Written questions during 2023 seemed to increasingly invoke issues of security to not reply in detail on, for example, police staffing and training or almost everything related to State Security.

In the House, when opposition MPs raise concerns, the usual reply is that the minister has replied. Finish and klaar.

On that lapsed DA parliamentary question about the presidential Rugby World Cup trip to Paris, the new year brings a new cycle of questions and someone could raise it again. DM