The Effectiveness of Legislative Oversight in Democratic South Africa: Exploring Political Will

Drawing on empirical data from document analysis, this paper will carry out a critical analysis of the effectiveness of the oversight and accountability system of the legislative sector of South Africa in detecting early warning signs prior to financial and governance collapse, by examining three provincial government departments. The results reveal that several key early warning signs preceded governance and financial collapse at the three provincial education departments but that the provincial departments ignored signals of repetitive financial irregularities flagged up by the Auditor General of South Africa. The article argues that there is a lack of political will to effectively respond to early warning signs of looming crises in provincial government departments in South Africa for the purpose of preventing or mitigating their negative impact.