Note to Editors: Please note Dr Imran Keeka, MPL sound bite in English
Despite being a committed partner within KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN’s) Government of Provincial Unity (GPU), the DA remains the province’s most effective political party in terms of oversight and accountability.
Official statistics for the number of written and oral parliamentary questions (view here) submitted to KZN’s MECs and their departments in 2025 show that;
• The DA’s eight caucus members who are not part of the executive, submitted a total of 312 questions – 64% of all questions while;
• KZN’s official opposition party, the Mkhonto Wesizwe Party’s (MKP) 37 members, submitted less than half of this, with 153 – or 32%.
Parliamentary questions are one of the most effective oversight tools available within parliamentary structures. They compel members of the executive to provide answers, within a stipulated time frame, on a wide range of issues affecting our province’s people.
Widely used by the DA – now and during our time as KZN’s official opposition – they often lead to exposing corruption and other forms of wrongdoing, both within government structures and externally.
Parliamentary questions are also a form of enquiry that allow for MECs and HoDs to see matters through the eyes of Legislature members, who are often on the ground and in constituencies.
Despite their limitations in terms of quantity per member per week, questions and the various forms of questions one may submit are an age-old tradition of the parliamentary system. It was through this same type of enquiry that the DA was able to establish that 311 people had died while waiting for cancer treatment during KZN’s oncology crisis.
The 2025 statistics should and must worry those who support the MKP. One wonders what they do in the Legislature. Their fecklessness as KZN’s official opposition is repeatedly demonstrated and these statistics are further evidence of this.
If one had to break this statistic down;
• The DA’s eight members submitted an average of 44 questions per member in 2025
• The MKP’s 37 caucus members submitted an average of only four questions per member
• The DA, in other words, did 11 times more work in this area that the entire MKP put together on a per member basis.
Members must utilise all the tools of accountability available to ensure that no stone is left unturned when it comes to issues affecting KZN’s people. The DA has also repeatedly stated that KZN’s leaders must be held accountable and that they must have the desire to be held accountable for KZN to turn around. These statistics are testament to the fact that the GPU remains accountable and strong.
While there is much work to be done for KZN to fully devlop into a capable, ethical and caring province, the signs of progress are there. We remain committed to the spirit of holding executive members to account, irrespective of whether that member is from the DA, or not.