DA in 2nd vote of no confidence in Zuma

THE Democratic Alliance has requested another motion of no confidence in parliament in a bid to remove President Jacob Zuma.

This is the first such motion to be brought under the new rules of parliament, but the second attempt this year as the party requested a motion of no confidence debate at the beginning of the year, following the firing of then finance minister Nhlanhla Nene.

Party leader Mmusi Maimane said it was not something the party took lightly but it was one of two parliamentary tools to remove the president available to them.

The second is Section 89 of the Constitution, which concerns a violation of the oath of office – which the DA tried last September after Sudanese president Omar al Bashir was allowed to leave the country.

Maimane said this motion of no confidence followed allegations of state capture, the crisis in the higher education sector and the charges brought against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan. Previous attempts to remove the president saw the ruling party in parliament present a united front against the motions but Maimane said that recent statements by cabinet ministers and ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu represented a growing frustration in the ANC, which he hoped, would see them voting to remove Zuma.

A majority vote is required. In the DA’s earlier attempt, only 99 votes were cast in favour of the motion, while 225 were cast against it; 22 MPs abstained.

Maimane said the motion would provide an opportunity for those who had already spoken out publicly to act.

“It’s no good for Cyril Ramaphosa to sit in corners and say things at funerals,” he said, referring to the deputy president’s comments at former sports minister Makhenkesi Stofile’s funeral in August, when he pledged support for Gordhan.

“If the ANC wants to unite behind state capture then they must tell South Africans that they are united behind smallnyana skeletons”, he said.

Party chief whip John Steenhuisen said “sometimes even when you lose, you win. South Africans will see who is on the side of right or wrong,” he said.

Asked about the chances the motion could succeed, Maimane acknowledged the ANC’s track record of closing ranks but said “we have to allow extraordinary times to unfold.

“As they say in cricket, records are meant to be broken”.