Africa-Press – South-Africa. President Cyril Ramaphosa will face his first
motion of no confidence on 30 March.His Cabinet will face a similar motion on the same
day.Both votes will be in the open, and this could
delay the process as some opposition parties are unhappy about National
Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s decision and could take further
steps.At the National Assembly Programming Committee’s
meeting on Thursday morning, Mapisa-Nqakula announced that both motions will be
voted on and debated on 30 March. She said voting for both motions will be in
the open.DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone said an open vote
would be “very concerning” to members who might not want to toe the
party line.She said an open vote would be tantamount to
wasting time. She suggested that Mapisa-Nqakula take a legal opinion on the
matter.Mapisa-Nqakula said she had taken a legal opinion.She said: I wouldn’t come and preside over this meeting without a legal opinion.”The environment in Parliament is not toxic at
all.”
She said South Africa had just come out of an
election, and the Zondo Commission report will be presented to Parliament in
June. She said it had been discussed openly already.She said if these things could be done, there was
no reason why there couldn’t be an open vote.She said the only issue the DA raised was that
members of the executive shouldn’t participate in the motion of no confidence
in Cabinet.”I have ruled members of the executive will
participate in the debate and the vote,” Mapisa-Nqakula said, adding that
they were members of Parliament.According to DA deputy chief whip Siviwe Gwarube,
things could be legally sound but make no sense where accountability was
concerned.Mapisa-Nqakula said: If you want to take the decision on review, you can do so.She said the rules provided for voting in a hybrid
system.
ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina said the rules
allowed MPs to vote against their party.”I don’t understand the issue now,” she
said.Mapisa-Nqakula said she had made her ruling, and
parties were welcome to make formal submissions on the matter to her. She said
she would also ask Parliament’s legal services to provide copies of their
advice to her to the parties.Voting in the open in a virtual setting means that
chief whips will inform the table how many of their MPs are present and whether
or not they support the motion.If an MP wants to vote differently from their
party, it is then up to them to publicly say so. This is yet to happen.READ | Steenhuisen tables motion of no
confidence in Ramaphosa’s Cabinet ‘of crooks, free-loaders’In March last year, the contentious vote on Public
Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s impeachment was done in the open.ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe instructed ANC MPs
to support the DA motion. Some ANC MPs – believed to be aligned to the
so-called radical economic transformation (RET) faction – were opposed to
supporting this motion. No ANC MP voted against the motion or abstained, but a
few ANC MPs were absent.The ATM – who were not represented in Thursday’s
meeting – lodged its motion of no confidence in Ramaphosa in early 2020. It was
scheduled to be heard by the end of that year, but was delayed as the ATM
challenged then-speaker Thandi Modise’s decision to reject a secret ballot for
the vote on the motion.Mapisa-Nqakula has already indicated that the vote
on the motion will not be secret.Last month, during the State of the Nation Address
debate, DA leader John Steenhuisen announced that he had lodged a motion of no
confidence in Cabinet. If this motion should pass, Ramaphosa would not be
removed.If the ATM’s motions were to succeed, both
Ramaphosa and his Cabinet would be removed.The committee also heard that the DA’s request for
an urgent debate on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been ceded and will be
debated on 15 March.
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