One of our society’s greatest flaws is the inability to actively hold politicians to account. In far too many instances, politicians make announcements in times of crises, promise to commission a study or an inquiry, which then predictably misses its own deadlines. Recently, we have seen this from the finance minister, who promised action on the issue of the Public Investment Corp’s governance "in due course", and then promptly went silent on us. No-one complained. The president assembled a team to look into ways of mitigating the effect of fuel price increases on society. Nothing has been heard since. In 2013, the department of basic education finally published its "norms and standards" relating to school infrastructure and set itself a deadline of 2016 for full implementation. Unsurprisingly, it missed the deadline.Bizarrely, when the department was taken to court regarding this delay it lost the court case and then decided to appeal. A week after it announced this intention, Pres...

Subscribe now to unlock this article.

Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).

There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.

Cancel anytime.

Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.