Zimpapers Logo

Baleka Mbete

CAPE TOWN. – South Africa’s National Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete yesterday announced that the vote of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma will be done through a secret ballot today.

This comes after opposition parties, including the Democratic Alliance, Economic Freedom Fighters and United Democratic Movement, made numerous unsuccessful calls for the speaker to announce her decision in advance so as to allow them enough time to deliberate on a way forward.

From requesting a meeting with the speaker to giving her an ultimatum, the DA demanded that she make her decision on the secret ballot by 9am on Saturday – this, also, to no avail.

Mbete only announced on Sunday evening that she’d make her decision public on Monday (yesterday) afternoon, just a day before the sitting.

Meanwhile, in an interview with News24 in July, EFF leader Julius Malema threatened that, should Mbete’s decision be that the motion will be held through an open vote, the party would take the matter to court immediately.

The EFF also accused Mbete of deliberately delaying the announcement of her decision so opposition parties would not have insufficient time to legally respond to the decision.

“We’ll take her to court. She has to give rational reasons. Papers are ready. The day she says ‘it’s open’ (vote); when she gives us that letter, we are not going to read the whole thing, we’ll read the conclusion. We are going to exchange the letters.”

Mbete said in June that the decision on whether or not to use a secret ballot in the motion of no confidence must be rational, and therefore required careful consideration. She also said the Constitutional Court had not given her a date by which she had to make her decision known.

The Constitutional Court ruled in June that Mbete does has the constitutional power to decide whether or not to hold a secret ballot during the motion, and must make a “rational” decision on whether or not to allow MPs to vote by secret ballot.

Delivering his judgment, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng 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.”

Meanwhile, the ANC has welcomed the decision by National Assembly Speaker Mbete on having a secret ballot in the motion of no confidence vote against President Zuma, adding that it remains positive in their members of Parliament.

Mbete’s decision to allow for the no confidence vote to be held by secret ballot caught analysts by surprise. “This was not expected, as reflected in the rand-dollar exchange rate, which strengthened immediately on the announcement to R13.19/USD from R13.35/$ before the announcement,” said Citi Velocity economist Gina Schoeman in a company note. The future of this beloved country lies in your vote, wrote Wits University vice chancellor Prof Adam Habib.

At least 50 of the ANC’s 249 MPs need to vote with the opposition to remove President Zuma from office today.

That is if all opposition MPs also support the motion of no confidence in him. President Zuma has survived seven previous votes of no confidence. – News24/The Sowetan.