Vote must be open
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma will face his latest motion of no-confidence in Parliament today. However, we don’t expect anything to change with regards to his status as head of state.
Speaker Baleka Mbete announced the vote will be secret. While her decision is quite remarkable, we believe it must be an open vote. There may be merit in the argument for a secret ballot, but MPs should not be voting in secret because those who serve us in Parliament ought to be individuals with good moral values. In other words they must be authentic public representatives of the electorate. What they say must be in keeping with what they do. Such individuals do not operate in secret. But it seems the ANC has enough support to ensure Zuma remains president of the republic – at least until the ANC has its elective conference in December.
Remember, the ANC holds 249 out of the 400 seats in the National Assembly. It is true that some ANC MPs have spoken out against Zuma, but they are the exception. The vast majority of ANC MPs are likely to support him. The secret vote will simply offer a minority of ANC MPs a mechanism to express their unhappiness with their leader.
However, irrespective of which way the vote goes, everyone must respect the outcome. After all, that is what a democracy is all about.
This said, let us not forget why there was a campaign for a secret ballot in the first place. The common denominator in all of this is the president. Under his leadership the country’s economy is not growing at the rate it could.
Under his leadership the ANC suffered great losses in last year’s local government elections. Under his leadership factionalism in the ANC is tearing the party apart. It is also under his leadership that “state capture” is alive and well.
But Zuma is president at the behest of the ANC, and it is the ANC and its members who must take collective responsibility for the way he leads. They were the ones who put him there. Collectively they should accept the electorate’s response the next time South Africans go to the poll.