Chief justice delivers rebuke to party loyalists
Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng yesterday confirmed that Speaker of parliament Baleka Mbete has the power to decide to hold a secret ballot on a motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma, adding some cautionary words for ministers.
The unanimous judgment penned by Mogoeng found for the United Democratic Movement and awarded costs against Zuma and Mbete in their official capacities for the UDM, Economic Freedom Fighters, the Inkatha Freedom Party and the Congress of the People.
“A motion of no confidence is, in some respects, potentially more devastating than impeachment,” Mogoeng said. “It may be passed by an ordinary, as opposed to a two-thirds majority, of members of the National Assembly. Unlike an impeachment that targets only the president, a motion of no confidence does not spare the deputy president, ministers and deputy ministers of adverse consequences.”
Mogoeng fired a shot across Zuma’s bow, noting the circumstances for a secret ballot in a vote of no confidence “could conceivably be reached where serious fault lines in the area of accountability, good governance and objective suitability for the highest office have since become apparent”.
He added: “Those concerns might not necessarily rise to the level of grounds required for impeachment. But the lingering expectation of the president delivering on the constitutional mandate entrusted to him [or her] might have become increasingly dim.”
The chief justice delivered a stinging rebuke for ministers when he noted that nowhere did the “supreme law provide for them to swear allegiance to their political parties”.
He said party loyalty could never trump the upholding of constitutional values. He also cautioned against misusing the opportunity for a secret ballot through bribery. “For, when money or oiled hands determine the voting outcome, particularly in a matter of such monumental importance, then no conscience or oath finds expression.”
Mogoeng added that the power rested with Mbete “but exercisable subject to crucial factors that are appropriately seasoned with considerations of rationality”.