MPs entitled to secret vote – EFF
“We were told that we are going to adopt socialism. When we are going to start fighting for it? From the morning the person is not talking about socialism, but he is just talking about the ANC,” he said.
The president said Cosatu should focus on workers’ issues because, since the world was approaching a fourth industrial revolution, “the computers are taking over jobs from workers”.
“We don’t hear them discussing the future of the workers, but they are busy discussing the ANC.
“Ever since the ANC was started you never heard it even a single day discussing one of the alliance partners,” he said.
“This president is not contesting against anyone, and he is only preparing to retire and enjoy his pension. Why is the person preparing to retire being fought against?”
He challenged his opponents within the ruling party to tell him what wrong he had committed against them. He said opposition parties were clear because their mission was to destroy the ANC and take over the country.
“We must ask those of us who have grouped themselves why are they fighting against a person who is walking out as if he is coming in.
“We must ask why the leadership battle is so much that it is like there is no tomorrow. We must ask what makes people fight so much against their own movement,” he said.
Organiser of the prayer meeting, Bishop Laurence Mahlakwane, said the church leaders in eThekwini would defend Zuma because he had been “bestowed by God” to the position. SOUTH Africa’s members of Parliament are entitled to vote secretly and according to their conscience, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, for the EFF told the Constitutional Court.
The application was ultimately about seeing the executive being held accountable, he added.
“Their conduct is up for scrutiny and when they fail in their duties, they’re removed from office. Inside the National Assembly itself, members are entitled to vote according to their own conscience,” he told the justices.
“The duty of MPs is to the electorate and the constitution, especially when you are a member of the majority party… MPs are not machines set up to execute mandates.”
Ngcukaitobi added that the only way to protect MPs was through the secret vote.
He had earlier told the court that the EFF sought a secret ballot in the motion for no confidence vote against President Jacob Zuma only, and not as a permanent solution for Parliament.
Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng asked him why he was seeking relief only for the present members but not for future members of Parliament, after which Ngcukaitobi conceded and said he “could have forgotten my exact words” but that the outcome would apply to everyone now and in the future.
He slammed Speaker Baleka Mbete’s argument that she had no discretion on the secret ballot. “Rule 103 and 104 says the Speaker must decide a procedure in secret vote for motion of no confidence. Section of National Assembly rules confers an obligation on the Speaker.”
The outcome of the secret ballot was not the issue, he added.
“We know that the president criticises us, we do not care about the outcome of whether the MPs will decide to retain the president or not… members of the ANC even must be free to decide for themselves.
“We know that open voting exposes MPs to repercussions… the only way for them to exercise their vote freely is through a judicial protection.” – ANA