‘Their blood will be in your hands’ – Mente tells Mapisa-Nqakula in debate over secret ballot

Defiant National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has ruled against the secret ballot despite calls by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the African Transformation Movement (ATM) to protect MPs against alleged death threats.

ATM leader Vuyolwethu Zungula told Mapisa-Nqakula: “There are threats that members of the ruling party are going to be expelled [if they do not toe the party line]. How can you say that is not sufficient for a secret ballot?”

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In support of Zungula, EFF leader Julius Malema said while Mapisa-Nqakula had responded to all the letters sent to her by political parties regarding the vote, the death threats came after her correspondence.

Death threats: Case opened

“There is a point that is being raised here that by the time you wrote a letter rejecting a secret ballot, there was no death threat, there are members of Parliament, after your letter, who received death threats and a case has been opened. We can’t proceed as if there is no development between your letter and now,” argued Malema.

“We understand the threat by this minister who swallowed the cameras of Bosasa, who’s threatening his own members. On top of the swallower of Bosasa cameras, there’s another threat where MPs have received death threats from the underworld which these people are working with that if we vote in the opposite we’re going to be killed.”

‘Blood on your hands’

EFF national chairperson Veronica Mente suggested that the Speaker take five minutes to “apply her mind” on the issue of death threats. She argued that should anything happen to MPs who vote for the Phala Phala report”, their blood will be on her hands.

“When we wrote to you, this development was not there and you’re correct, you responded to us on the basis of the facts we put before you. Immediately after we received your response, there was this development, now we’re going to suggest that let’s take five minutes, go and apply your mind and come back with a new ruling,” argued Mente.

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“People are going to die and you’re going to have blood on your hands, because once they vote against what the minister of minerals threatened about, they’re going to be killed. Their blood is going to be in your hands.”

But Mapisa-Nqakula defended Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe, saying he did not issue death threats when he told ANC MPs to vote against the Phala Phala report.