The decision by opposition parties to band together in a
vote of no confidence against Jacob Zuma highlights a growing
frustration with Parliament.
Opposition parties in Parliament are already considering a Plan B in the
event that the ANC turns down a request for a debate to resolve a vote
of no confidence in the leadership of President Jacob Zuma.
Last week eight political parties banded together to file a motion of
no confidence against Zuma, citing the Marikana killings, the Nkandla
renovations, the Limpopo textbook saga, successive economic downgrades,
and disrespect for the Constitution, among others, as their reasons.
The ANC has called the motion a “narrow publicity seeking gimmick” but
the DA, Cope and the IFP have asked for a date for the debate to be
scheduled on Thursday morning. They’ve also asked that a vote be taken
at the end of the debate by secret ballot.
Such a debate will only be scheduled if agreed to by either the Chief
Whips’ Forum or the Programming Committee which sets the agenda for each
day.
With the ANC in the majority, the party essentially has the final
say in whether the discussion ever makes it to the floor.
But Paul Graham, executive director of the Institute for Democracy in
Africa, said proposing a motion of no confidence in a president is
legitimate political activity.
Graham said the motion suggests “a frustration with Parliament and the
president, that matters of concern to opposition parties and by
extension to almost one in every three voting adults are not being given
sufficient weight by the governing party”.
“Personally I would like to see a rational, hard talking debate in
Parliament about the state of the nation and the performance of the
president,” he said.
“That the motion will fail is self-evident. But that does not mean it is not an important moment in our democratic life.”
The parties are under no illusions about the prospects of the motion being debated in Parliament.
IFP chief whip Koos Van Der Merwe said that the fate of the motion lay
with the ANC, which has a majority in Parliament. “If they want to let a
motion through or they want to kill a motion, they do it. It’s as
simple as that,” he said.
“Parliament and politics are in a state of paralysis because of
Mangaung,” said Van Der Merwe. “Do you think the ANC will want to open
this can of worms a month before Mangaung?”
Cope acting whip Juli Kilian agreed that there was little hope the debate would actually happen.
“We’re going to go into the chief whips' forum [on Wednesday], and it’s
going to be a huge fight, then we’re going to the programming committee
on Thursday and its going to be another huge fight,” she said.
“We’re not going to accept that they’re just not going to debate it.”
Kilian said that if the ANC was going to “abuse their majority to
filibuster to get to the end of their term without a debate”, the
parties would consider taking the debate forward outside of Parliament.
With the final sitting for the year looming at the end of next week, it seems Parliament is set to close with a bit of drama.
Mail&Guardian
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