ATM heads to court for secret ballot

THE AFRICAN Transformation Movement (ATM) is heading to court on an urgent basis to force National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise to accede to its request for a secret ballot in the motion of no confidence against President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Yesterday, the party’s top officials were consulting with attorneys to prepare papers after Modise declined for the second time their request for a secret ballot last week.

ATM spokesperson Sibusiso Mncwabe said: “The president is with the secretary-general in the chambers. We will file an urgent application to be heard tomorrow (today).“

He said if a court order was not issued, they would be guided by the court, but they would not interdict Thursday’s sitting to stop the debate pending a secret ballot.

Mncwabe made the comments after Modise yesterday declined for the second time a request by the ATM for the voting on the motion of no confidence in Ramaphosa to be conducted by way of a secret ballot.

This was despite the ATM’s lawyer, Andile Justice Magigaba, giving her an ultimatum of the end of business on Monday to accede to the its request.

Modise ruled last Thursday that a secret ballot “becomes necessary where the prevailing atmosphere is toxified or highly charged". "Considerations of transparency and openness sometimes demand a display, as the Constitutional Court asserted, of ‘courage and resoluteness to boldly advance the best interests of those the members of the NA (National Assembly) represent, no matter the consequences, including the risk of dismissal for non-compliance with the party’s instructions’."