OUTA report reveals South Africa' s Parliamentarians ‘working harder’ but accountability still lacking
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) says while South Africa’s 7th Parliament has become more active, its oversight efforts still lack consequence.
Releasing its 7th annual Parliamentary Oversight Report on Wednesday, titled The Review Nobody Escapes, OUTA said the new Parliament has “the tools, constitutional authority, public backing and multi-party legitimacy essential to rebuilding trust in democratic institutions. What it needs now is the will to act with conviction.”
The 2025 report assesses how effectively Parliament is fulfilling its constitutional duty to hold the executive to account, drawing on data from the ParliMeter dashboard developed by OUTA, the Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG) and OpenUp, with funding from the European Union.
According to OUTA, between June 2024 and June 2025 parliamentary committees held 1 165 meetings nearly double the number recorded in the final years of the 6th Parliament, and MPs submitted more than 6 700 written questions.
However, “only about one-third were answered within deadline,” the report states.
“Parliament is working harder, but not necessarily smarter,” OUTA said. It said oversight remains often too reactive rather than preventive.
“Committees expose corruption and inefficiency, yet few findings result in sanctions or reform.”
MPs are currently dealing with two pressing issues – the Ad Hoc Committee to investigate allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal provincial police commissioner, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) is conducting an oversight inquiry into allegations of maladministration, financial impropriety, and the misuse of public funds at the Road Accident Fund (RAF).
The report was released in the context of the Government of National Unity (GNU) formed after the 2024 elections, which united 10 political parties, including the ANC, DA, IFP, Patriotic Alliance, GOOD, PAC, Freedom Front Plus, UDM, Rise Mzansi and Al Jama-ah.
OUTA observed that this arrangement “has re-shaped Parliament’s internal dynamics” bringing “more robust debate and cross-party cooperation but also new tensions about who ultimately enforces accountability”.
Providing examples of effective oversight, the report said the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development’s February 2025 visit to KwaZulu-Natal, had “exposed governance failings at the Ingonyama Trust Board, prompting calls for legislative review.”
The Portfolio Committee on Basic Education’s visits to rural schools “revealed ongoing shortages of teachers, scholar transport and learning materials. Strong recommendations were made, but implementation remains painfully slow.”
Public participation has also reached record levels, with more than 1 000 organisations engaging in hearings and dialogues between November 2024 and June 2025. But OUTA cautioned that “listening without acting is not democracy, it’s performance.”
Despite progress, structural weaknesses persist. OUTA said “delayed enforcement of the Auditor-General’s findings allows financial mismanagement to continue unchecked,” while “vacancies and frequent member reshuffling erode institutional memory.”
The organisation proposed six reforms to strengthen impact, including enforcing Parliament’s Oversight and Accountability Model, linking public-service professionalisation to measurable outcomes, expanding open-data dashboards, and publishing quarterly performance scorecards on attendance and follow-up.
“Democracy survives not by the strength of elections alone, but by the vigilance of institutions that hold power to account,” OUTA concluded. “Parliament is awake. The question is whether it will now learn to walk with purpose.”