Mokgware raps Ministers for shoddy performance

Member of Parliament for Gabane-Mankgodi, Pius Mokgware has expressed disappointment at the poor level or answers that cabinet ministers provide in Parliament.

Mokgware argued that the reason why Parliament in most instances seems to be performing badly is that along with its leadership, it seems these days it is only concerned with quantity instead of quality. The legislator accused ministers of providing shoddy answers. “The worst thing is that when you try to make a follow-up question the Speakership would not allow you saying there is no time.

This is a contributing factor to MPs having to bring more or less the same questions time and again. This is not doing us any good as MPs. Even to account to our electorate is a problem because we give them sub standard answers and sometimes inaccurate answers. This questions the capabilities of our ministers,” fumed Mokgware.

Deputy Speaker, Kagiso Molatlhegi said as the leadership they acknowledge the concerns by MPs. He said there are many questions that MPs have noticed need to be attended to. “We have close to 200 questions that have been noticed. We used to have ten (10) questions noticed but after realising that the number has increased, we decided to have 15 questions in an order paper.

We are trying to deal with so many questions to reduce the backlog,” said the deputy speaker. Molatlhegi explained that the issue would also be dealt with during the general assembly to see how to deal with the concerns regarding answers by ministers. He stated that MPs are empowered by Parliament Standing Orders to demand answers from ministers if they are not satisfied with those provided in Parliament.