SA speaker faces decisive moment President Zuma
President Zuma

President Zuma

JOHANNESBURG/CAPE TOWN. – South Africa’s National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete must make a rational decision on whether or not to allow MPs to vote by secret ballot in the motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma.

Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng was clear in his judgment yesterday when he ruled in favour of opposition parties seeking clarity on whether Mbete has the power to prescribe that voting in the motion of no confidence could be conducted by secret ballot.

He said: “There must always be proper and rational basis for whatever choice the speaker makes in the exercise of the constitutional power to determine the voting procedure.”

The Constitutional Court ruled on an application brought by the United Democratic Movement (UDM). Political parties were due to debate a motion of no confidence in President Zuma on April 18, but the UDM, Economic Freedom Fighters and the Democratic Alliance asked for a postponement after the Constitutional Court allowed the UDM direct access to argue its case that MPs be allowed to vote in the motion by secret ballot.

In a unanimous judgment, penned by Mogoeng, the court set aside Mbete’s April 6 statement that she did not have the power to enforce a secret ballot. He said Mbete was mistaken when she said neither the Constitution nor the rules of the National Assembly allowed her to authorise a vote by secret ballot.

“Our interpretation of the relevant provisions of the Constitution and the rules makes it clear that the speaker does have the power to authorise a vote by secret ballot in motion of no confidence proceedings against the president, in appropriate circumstances,” Mogoeng said.

Meanwhile, President Zuma said there is no need to have a secret ballot during a motion of no confidence in his presidency, as the vote has failed on seven previous occasions. He was asked during a question session in the National Assembly yesterday if he would support a decision by Mbete to hold the vote via secret ballot, following the Constitutional Court’s ruling earlier.

He said opposition parties have exhausted all their options, and are now trying to find a majority in Parliament that they did not earn at the polls. “You are trying to get a majority you don’t have, by saying secret ballot,” he said in reply to Freedom Front Plus MP Corne Mulder. “I think it’s unfair, because you are trying to increase the majority you don’t have.

“That is my view, let us vote the way we have been voting. Maybe it’s your job to find alternative methods; fact of the matter is, you don’t have the majority.” President Zuma said the ConCourt ruling was clear that the decision was now in the Speaker’s hands, and asked why this time should be any different.

“I have faced seven kinds of votes of no confidence. You have tried your best, but you have failed,” he continued. “Why this time, should you do it differently? It’s trying to find a way to see if you can win or not. What has gone wrong? What is the problem? “My view is that we should do what we have done in the past. I see no convincing reason why we should change.”

Baleka Mbete

Baleka Mbete

He said Parliament has got the sufficient instruments for MPs to vote. President Zuma was also adamant that the opposition’s attempts would result in the ANC winning a majority during the sixth democratic elections. “In 2019, the ANC will win once again because you don’t have a majority. “You can try, you can do everything, you can go to court, the court will bring you back to the legislature. That will happen,” he said to laughter from the ANC MPs.

In a follow up question, Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane asked President Zuma about him overseeing South Africa’s downgrade to junk status. “It is absolutely true that the people of this country prefer the ANC to lead them up to this point. No doubt about that,” Zuma responded. “The junk status is not for the first time in South Africa, and there have been different reasons. It has come and gone. Don’t make this a Zuma thing.”

He said opposition parties must not make the mistake of misleading the country to think the people did not want the ANC in government. “They love it. If you don’t love it, there’s nothing strange, (because) you are an opposition.”

In a separate development, the ANC in Parliament has welcomed the Constitutional Court’s ruling that Speaker Mbete must decide again on a motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma, saying it doesn’t change its stance. ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu affirmed the party’s right to decide how its members conduct itself in Parliament according to their party’s constitution.

“As Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng reminded us today, the South African electoral system is a party political system. The electorate votes for political parties who represent them in the legislature . . . We reiterate our long stated position that we will not support the motion of no confidence on President Jacob Zuma by opposition parties. We will defeat this motion of no confidence by the opposition as we have successfully done so in the previous four motions tabled in this fifth term of Parliament,” said Mthembu. – News24.

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