Oversight has become an important and interesting field of study. Once referred to as a neglected stepchild (Rockman, 1984), oversight is positioned to be a key factor in strengthening democracy. International organisations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have placed emphasis on the relationship between oversight and democracy. Oversight plays a fundamental role in maintaining checks and balances between the legislative and executive sectors. Premised in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, this underscores the executive-legislative relations, in terms of the legislature holding the executive to account for its actions. Ideally, oversight is a pivot to ensure that democracy is relished; however, the article argues that, in South Africa, there is an emerging culture relating to a lack of accountability. Twenty years after the advent of democracy, with macro and meso-level institutions in