For the second time in less than a year, South Africa’s parliament will debate a motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday.
The motion was brought by the Democratic Alliance following Zuma’s decision to change finance ministers in December. And while Parliament debates the president’s fitness to hold office, the High Court in Pretoria will be asked by the Democratic Alliance to review a decision to drop corruption charges against him.
Lacking a majority in Parliament, the Democratic Alliance has been lobbying for a secret ballot, in the hope that African National Congress MPs would vote against Zuma. The ANC has almost 250 MPs in the National Assembly and unless some of the members vote against Zuma, the motion destined to fail again.
ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said on Tuesday the party had full confidence in Zuma, and the party would use the debate to reaffirm their unwavering support. He called the debate “theatrics”.
“Through these debates the DA makes an attempt, feeble as it may be, to win in Parliament what they failed to win in the streets – the hearts and minds of the South African people.”
He said the Democratic Alliance knew it lacked “superior arguments” to convince Parliament and the South African people that President Zuma was not fit to lead.
“Hence they will resort to desperate and unconstitutional measures by seeking to deny members of the Executive the right to participate in the debate,” he said.
The Democratic Alliance has called for Cabinet ministers to be excluded from voting, as they were directly employed by Zuma.
Kodwa said the ANC would use the debate to highlight some of the positive changes made in the country under Zuma’s leadership.
“The people of South Africa have seen these strides and have trusted President Zuma and the ANC to continue with this work and tackle the challenges that continue to plague us,” he said.
Democratic Alliance chief whip John Steenhuisen said on Monday the motion promised to be one of the most important in history, and it deserved to be done in as fair a manner as possible. Over one million letters lobbying the ANC to support the motion had been sent so far, he said.
In March 2015, the Democratic Alliance motion was defeated with ease by the ruling party. Despite opposition MPs labelling Zuma a ‘thief’ and a runaway leader, a total of 221 MPs voted against it, 113 supported it, and eight chose to abstain.
