Daily Dispatch

Introspection is needed in ANC

With Jacob Zuma having survived the no-confidence vote in the National Assembly on Tuesday evening by a mere 21 votes, any sensible person would have expected the ANC to begin asking themselves some tough questions.

What is evident is that the governing party is deeply divided as it was demonstrated during the vote when no less than 30 ANC MPs sided with the united opposition in the motion to remove their president.

With 198 votes against the motion, Zuma lived to see another day. The opposition could only muster 177 votes in support of the motion. This means that had the opposition managed to convince 11 more ANC MPs to vote in support of the motion, Zuma would have been history. Yet the president saw fit to gloat – while addressing ANC supporters outside parliament – that the outcome of the parliamentary vote was proof that the ANC was invincible. How shortsighted. But as gaffe prone as Zuma is his response was not unexpected. But what was surprising was the triumphalist attitude among Zuma’s supporters, with senior ANC leaders calling for an investigation to uncover the “sellouts” who voted with the opposition. Given that the vote was conducted through a secret ballot, such a probe will be nothing short of a witch-hunt.

All that such an exercise would achieve would be to breed an atmosphere of fear and loathing. The most logical thing for the ANC to do would be to introspect and find out why their own parliamentarians would vote for the removal of their president? The real sellouts here are the 198 MPs who chose to defend Zuma’s corruption. The Constitutional Court made it clear that MPs are accountable to South Africans and not party bosses.

They are not beholden to party positions or directives. Basically nothing prohibits them from voting as they see fit.

Clearly the likes of Small Business Development minister Lindiwe Zulu and deputy minister of Military Veterans Kebby Maphatsoe either do not respect the highest court in the land or they did not bother to read the judgment.

Either way their approach is a recipe for disaster. But if the ANC wants to continue on a path towards self-destruction then so be it. This is why the latest DA campaign, to seek to collapse parliament, makes no sense. To seek to collapse parliament is anti-democratic and shameful for a party that claims to respect the values of our democracy. It is a shortsighted approach and is doomed to fail. The reality is that the DA and the rest of the opposition failed to remove Zuma from power. They must just accept that and move on. Besides the 2019 election is around the corner. The majority of voters in this country gave the governing mandate to the ANC in the 2014 election. The DA is no representative of the South African population. If the voters wanted it that way they would have voted Maimane’s party into power.

It is also worth noting that other opposition parties like the EFF, UDM and IFP have roundly rejected the latest DA proposal. The DA must just use the period between now and the 2019 election to build their support base.