Zimpapers Logo

Cape Town. — Agang SA deputy president Andries Tlouamma yesterday blind-sided the National Assembly by withdrawing his motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma.

He did so in protest at Speaker Baleka Mbete’s refusal to recuse herself from presiding over the debate.

“I will withdraw it,” Tlouamma said after an eight-minute speech that barely mentioned Zuma, focusing more on Mbete and concluding with another call for her to cede her place to another presiding officer.

Mbete’s tenure was, he said, marking the death of 20 years of lively debate in the post-apartheid Parliament.

She responded: “Honourable Tlouamma, I am presiding and I have no intention of withdrawing.”

Other opposition parties, many who are also highly critical of Mbete but have long sought a no confidence vote in the president, reacted with dismay that the motion, brought a fortnight after his tumultuous state-of-the-nation address, had been aborted.

Economic Freedom Fighters Chief Whip Floyd Shivambu said: “We must be serious. We don’t want to play the silly games of Agang.

“They must maybe dissolve and go and do something else and stop wasting our time.”

His Democratic Alliance counterpart John Steenhuisen said the party had called a three-line whip and devoted considerable time in preparing for the debate.

He said he agreed with ANC Chief Whip Stone Sizani’s interpretation of parliamentary rule 102, that the debate had to fall away after Tlouamma’s shock move. He however accused him of doing the ranks of the opposition a disservice.

“When this sort of thing happens it undermines our ability to hold the executive to account and for us to be taken seriously by them. But so be it.” – SAPA.