Madam Chair, the position of Gauteng is that accountability is not only in the form of Question Time. Parliament has a number of other mechanisms of accounting. If the President of the Republic of South Africa does not answer questions in the National Council of Provinces, that does not mean, therefore, that he does not subject himself to the accountability that goes with his office, or that he does not subject himself, in one way or the other, to being accountable to the electorate of this country.
There have been a number of occasions, dealt with in terms of our Rules book, such as matters of public importance, the Presidential Budget debates, etc, when neither the province that objects now, nor other provinces, have taken the opportunity to place such matters on the Order Paper in order to engage the President on such matters. If they have not utilised those mechanisms, it does not therefore mean that the Presidency does not regard itself as accountable to this House.
I must say that from the side of Gauteng we believe that there are a number of other mechanisms in our Rules book that would continue to allow us to engage the President as and when necessary, and we are fully satisfied that this motion is in order.