Suspended Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, during the parliamentary inquiry into her fitness to hold office in Parliament on 25 August 2022. Picture: Gallo Images / Daily Maverick /Leila Dougan
With all eyes on next week’s parliamentary sitting, the African Transformation Movement (ATM) is calling for a secret ballot vote on whether to remove suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane.
The Section 194 Committee recently adopted a final report which recommended Mkhwebane’s removal from office.
The suspended Public Protector had been found guilty on all four charges of misconduct and incompetence following an inquiry into her fitness to hold office.
The Section 194 report is now pending final approval from the National Assembly, which is set to debate and vote on the matter at the Cape Town City Hall on 11 September.
While a decision on the procedural aspects of the parliamentary sitting has already been made, the ATM has asked National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to consider a secret ballot vote.
In a letter, ATM leader Vuyo Zungula said his party was of the view that the Section 194 process already had a “politically predetermined outcome” from the inquiry’s inception.
Zungula argued Mkhwebane’s fate was an open secret because the inquiry’s established stemmed from an original complaint laid against the Public Protector by the Democratic Alliance (DA), with the backing of the African National Congress (ANC) and Freedom Front Plus (FF+).
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The ATM president said his party believes certain political parties will coerce their members on how to vote if there was an open vote, which was agreed upon during a National Assembly’s Programme Committee meeting last week.
“The ANC will notoriously use the party line method of coercing its census members to vote in favour of the removal motion,” he said, citing the Phala Phala impeachment vote as an example.
He highlighted that the adoption of the Section 194 report was passed because MPs from the DA, ANC and FF+ in the committee supported Mkhwebane’s impeachment.
“Given the unprecedented large number of members of the committee, it is undesirable that the members who voted in favour of the removal motion at committee level should again predictably and openly add their votes in the National Assembly. This will only serve to undermine the integrity of the process in the eyes of the public,” Zungula said.
Citing another reason why a secret ballot vote should be allowed, Zungula said President Cyril Ramaphosa was “perceived to be hostile to and biased” against the Public Protector due to her office’s investigations into the CR17 campaign and the Phala Phala scandal.
“Voting members of the ANC may well be inclined to please their president by being openly seen to vote according to his perceived wishes.
“More so, since the ANC is currently going through its list process aimed at deciding which members will be returned to Parliament within the next few months. The timing of this particular vote adds to the dire need for a secret ballot.”
READ MORE: Mkhwebane: ‘I am one of the best ever, unfortunately they’re blinded by hatred’
Zungula also pointed out the extortion scandal allegedly involving Section 194 chairperson Qubudile Dyantyi.
The ATM leader said it would be “extremely irrational” for Mapisa-Nqakula to deny MPs a secret ballot vote without considering the “peculiar and unique circumstances” of the matter.
He said ATM might go the legal route should the party’s request be rejected.
“In this regard we also hereby request that you defer the date of the vote so as to allow yourself to make a rational decision or ourselves to exercise our rights to access the courts should that prove to be necessary.”
At least a two thirds majority vote is needed to remove a Public Protector from office.
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