Africa-Press – South-Africa. The DA’s motion of no confidence in Cabinet was defeated in the National Assembly on Wednesday.
Altogether 231 MPs voted against the motion, 131 for, and one abstained.
It was the first time that such a motion was heard, and it also made use of the roll call voting system for the first time.
None of the ANC MPs broke rank, while other opposition parties like the IFP, GOOD, the NFP, AIC and Al Jama-ah also didn’t support the motion.
The DA, EFF, FF Plus, ACDP, UDM and ATM supported the motion.COPE’s Willie Madisha abstained, and the PAC was absent.
The voting took more than two and a half hours.
Introducing the motion, DA leader John Steenhuisen said it was about “restoring the most sacred and fundamental tenet of any democracy: The principle of accountability”.
“One of the oldest jokes around is that the letters ANC stand for Absolutely No Consequences. And this would’ve been funny had it not been so devastatingly true. The results of this impunity can be seen everywhere,” he said.
Steenhuisen said the real world was far from “lavish ministerial vehicle allowances, state-sponsored petrol and VIP security detail”.
“But because not one of these ministers has ever been held accountable, they just carry on wiping out jobs, destroying lives, and then living it up on taxpayer money. Every single sufferance or misery of our citizens can be traced back directly to an indifferent minister.”
EFF MP Veronica Mente said: “The DA motion should in any means try to portray Mr Cyril Ramaphosa as a person different from his Cabinet.”
She said he didn’t serve the people of South Africa, just like his Cabinet.
Mente said Cabinet embodied the saying “scraping the bottom of the barrel”.
IFP chief whip Narend Singh said Cabinet’s success or failure was also the president’s success or failure.
He said they would not be supporting the motion as they were giving Ramaphosa the benefit of the doubt to appoint the right people to Cabinet.
FF Plus chief whip Corné Mulder said Cabinet was merely an extension of the compromises the ANC made at its Nasrec conference in 2017. It had to balance all of the ANC’s factions.
UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said: “It doesn’t matter who the Cabinet members or the president are, if they come from the ANC, we are doomed as a nation.”
GOOD MP Brett Herron said the MECs in the Western Cape had more “permissions” than Cabinet members.
“The hypocrisy is astounding,” he said.
He said for 12 years the DA thought Albert Fritz – the former MEC and provincial leader accused of sexual misconduct – was fit for purpose.
Herron, a former DA councillor in Cape Town, clearly riled the DA benches.
Al Jama-ah leader Ganief Hendricks said “most Cabinet ministers are doing an excellent job”.
DA deputy chief whip Siviwe Gwarube said South Africans remembered clearly those who played leading roles in state capture, in the looting of Covid-19 funds and those who failed to protect them during the July riots.
“These are irredeemable people whose presence in our executive can no longer be justified. My plea today is that you vote to bring in capable ministers, who will work hard to pull South Africans out of poverty; who will be unapologetic about choosing policies that will grow our economy and create jobs; and ministers who will care about the future of this country,” she said.
ANC MP Xola Nqola said it was disgraceful to say ministers were disgraced and there was no evidence to suggest that any member of Cabinet contravened their oath of office.
He said the motion was a “cheap, divisive” attempt to “divide the president from his Cabinet”.
Earlier, the ATM’s motion of no confidence in Ramaphosa wasn’t debated, as ATM leader Vuyolwethu Zungula refused to move the motion. He claimed the matter was sub judice because of his court application to force the Speaker to have it voted on by secret ballot.
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