SA’s political week head: No-confidence motion will bring thousands to Parliament

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SA’s political week head: No-confidence motion will bring thousands to Parliament

7:49 CAT | 07 Aug 2017

File photo / Jacob Zuma

The South African parliament will take centre stage this week, as the eyes of South Africans will be fixed on the motion of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma taking place on Tuesday.

Opposition political parties and civil society are expected to hold rolling mass action in the build-up to Tuesday’s debate.

The #UniteBehindCoalition is set to lead a march to Parliament on Monday. The turnout is expected to be 10,000 strong and will be addressed by Mcebisi Jonas.

Opposition parties expect to hold another 10,000-strong demonstration and march on the day of the motion. Civil society group FutureSA will also hold a march.

The ANC’s Dullah Omar region is due to march from Cape Town’s Grand Parade on Tuesday morning in support of Zuma. The region’s announcement that it would demonstrate in support of Zuma has brought a fresh set of tensions, as Omar’s family has written to the national executive committee, asking that his name be removed from that march.

Opposition parties have consistently called for the motion vote to be a secret ballot, saying this would help disgruntled ANC MPs exercise a conscience vote without fear of reprisals.

Luthuli House has discouraged ANC MPs from exercising a conscience vote, saying they went to Parliament on the party ticket.

Police Minister Fikile Mbalula and chief whip Jackson Mthembu have reinforced the party line. Mbalula likened ANC MPs who would vote in favour of the motion to suicide bombers, while Mthembu said voting Zuma out of power through Parliament would be akin to detonating a nuclear bomb on the economy.

ANC MP and former tourism minister Derek Hanekom said that the governing party could not decree against consciences and that most of its MPs believed that action should be taken to put an end to the plunder of state resources.

However, the president is not the only leader facing a motion of no confidence this week. A motion of no confidence has been tabled in Nelson Mandela Bay against deputy mayor Mongameli Bobani of the United Democratic Movement (UDM). The vote is expected to take place at the Nelson Mandela Bay council on Thursday.

The UDM’s support was instrumental to getting DA candidate Athol Trollip sworn in as mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, but the coalition has been volatile. DA council member Nqaba Bhanga is supporting a bid by the Patriotic Alliance to have Bobani ousted.

Source: Business Live