Good for Holomisa trying to force a secret vote
UNITED Democratic Front leader Bantu Holomisa is not often in the limelight. So it was a pleasant surprise to see him step forward boldly and take the arrogant ANC bull by the horns.
Holomisa has applied to the Western Cape High Court to force partisan Speaker of the House Baleka Mbete to allow MPs the right to a secret vote in the forthcoming no-confidence motion against President Jacob Zuma.
I am not a legal expert but I think he has good grounds to succeed in his application.
Voters in both the local and national elections are allowed to cast their vote by secret ballot. Why should the rule be different in parliament?
All along MPs cast their votes openly. No ANC MP would dare go against party orders from fear of being exposed and victimised.
Now Holomisa wants to do something which no other leader had thought of before – to give the ANC MPs an opportunity to vote secretly without any fear of being bullied by the ANC
If the court rules in favour of Holomisa, then the ANC’s spineless “cowards” in parliament, who have without exception supported their corrupt leader, have a chance to redeem their blackened souls.
They can follow not the dictates of their party but the dictates of their conscience and vote out Zuma who has plunged the country into the worst political and economic turmoil since democracy.