Centre for Environmental Rights – Advancing Environmental Rights in South Africa

In terms of section 43(2) of the Constitution, Parliament must scrutinize and oversee executive action. One of the ways in which it exercises this oversight role is by allowing Members of Parliament (MP) to ask questions to members of the cabinet. Members of the cabinet are obliged to answer MPs’ questions. We have collected some of the questions by MPs to the Ministers of Environmental Affairs, Mineral Resources, Water and Sanitation and Energy and the answers to those questions.

Minister of Environmental Affairs

• Environmental Management Inspectors at a local government level (20 March 2015)
• COP 21 and the functioning of the One Environmental System (19 October 2015)
• South Africa’s COP 21 delegation (26 February 2016)
  • Annexure
• Securing the fence of the Kruger National Park (26 February 2016)
• Appeal against the judgment in Kruger v Minister of Environmental Affairs and others (26 February 2016)
• Cities in South Africa environmental problem areas (11 March 2016)

Minister of Mineral Resources 

• Derelict and ownerless mines (24 August 2012)
• Legal protection for the Chrissiesmeer Biodiversity Site (19 November 2012)
• Derelict and ownerless mines (31 May 2013)
• Policy for coal mining (23 February 2016)
• Optimum Colliery’s financial provision (18 March 2016)

Minister of Water and Sanitation

• Mines operating without water use licences (8 June 2009)
• Mines operating without water use licences (9 October 2009)
• Mines operating without water use licences (28 October 2011)
  • Annexure A 
  • Annexure B
• Mines operating without water use licences (19 September 2014)
• Successful criminal actions (27 February 2015)
  • Annexure
• Department of Water and Sanitation’s compliance monitoring and enforcement capacity (20 March 2015)
• Department of Water and Sanitations’s compliance monitoring and enforcement capacity (17 April 2015)
• Directives issued by the Department of Water and Sanitation (17 April 2015)
• Department of Water and Sanitation’s hotline for reporting crimes (17 April 2015)
• Criminal dockets, convictions and sentences (30 April 2015)
• Hydraulic fracturing in the Karoo (15 May 2015)
• Polluted state of the Olifants River (19 June 2015)
• Enforcement of applicable legislation by the Department of Water and Sanitation (29 June 2015)
• Designation of environmental management inspectors in the Department of Water and Sanitation (“blue scorpions”) (30 November 2015)
• 2015/16 Drought (18 April 2016)
  • Annexure 

Department of Energy 

• Draft Strategy to address Air Pollution in Dense Low-income Settlements (14 December 2015)
• Reactor designs for the proposed nuclear power plants (24 February 2016)
• Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme (8 April 2016)
• New initiatives to intensify solar energy (8 April 2016)
• Initiatives to intensify the production of solar and wind energy (19 April 2016)
• The accessibility of information relating to the proposed expansion of nuclear power in South Africa (5 September 2016)
• The accessibility of copies of invitations sent to various countries to attend vendor parade workshops (5 September 2016)

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries 

• Chinese fishing vessels in South African territorial waters (1 June 2016)
• The welfare of captive lions (13 September 2016)
• The welfare of captive bred animals (13 September 2016)
• Canned hunts (13 September 2016)