Do the right thing, MPs

THE no confidence debate in President Jacob Zuma scheduled for today has engaged the nation’s imagination and attention more than any other parliamentary event in recent times.

The only thing different to the previous seven motions was the possibility that the voting might be held in secret.

Many believed that if the ballot was secret, opposition parties would carry the day and the motion of no confidence would be passed.

Economic Freedom Fighter leader Julius Malema says he personally knows of at least 60 ANC MPs who will vote with the opposition parties if the vote is secret.

They need only 50 ANC MPs to support the motion to win.

A secret ballot would mean they could do so without any consequences to themselves.

They have now been given the opportunity to do so.

But it seems unconscionable that the only way that so many ANC MPs are prepared to do what they really believe to be right, is if they can do so in secret.

To do what is right in full view of everyone would result in the possibility of them being persecuted by their own party.

They could be recalled, disciplined and possibly even expelled from their party.

Has everyone forgotten that integrity, principle and sacrifice is what once made the ANC great?

In the prolonged and often seemingly hopeless struggle against apartheid, many in the United Democratic Front – of which the ANC made up a big part – gave up their freedom, family and even their lives in the pursuit of a more just and equitable South Africa. Some of those who sacrificed so much are in parliament today.

Sadly, the high road appears to have been sacrificed in a maelstrom of obscene corruption, patronage, the pursuit of power and a greed so grotesque it beggars belief.

The party is so toxic with factionalism, intolerance of alternative viewpoints and a terror of being on the wrong side of each new power struggle that it has become paralyzed with fear and indecision.

This country cannot afford moral paralysis. The price is simply too high. Mcebisi Jonas has shown the courage of his convictions in his vocal support of the motion of no confidence in Zuma. ANC MP Makhosi Khoza has also courageously urged her fellow ANC MPs to vote to oust Zuma regardless of the vote being open or secret.

Mbete clearly recognised that the current environment was so toxic that for the outcome of the vote to be credible, it had to be secret.

Her decision is a brave one and won’t earn her points in her own party.

The eyes of the world will be on the ANC and leaders such as deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa and cabinet minister Lindiwe Sisulu – whose campaigns for the ANC presidency have been almost entirely based on an anti-corruption and anti-state capture stance. Will they follow Khoza's brave example?

For the sake of the country, do the right thing.

Mbete has left the ANC MPs with no excuses not to.