. No provisions are made to assist members of the public living in under resourced rural areas assisting with utilisation of this public participation tool. . The current parliamentary rules pertaining to petitions have not been adapted to Constitutional requirement relating to public participation. There needs to be guidelines regarding relief that can be recommended in response to a petition. . The Rules should stipulate timeframes for dealing with petitions in respect of eliciting response from government departments, other bodies and informing the petitioner of the progress in the matter.