ATM’s motion of no confidence in Ramaphosa to be removed from parly’s order paper

The African Transformation Movement’s (ATM) motion of no confidence in President Cyril Ramaphosa will be removed from parliament’s order paper, despite the party’s request for the motion to be postponed to a later date.

Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula announced this on Thursday morning during a meeting of the National Assembly’s programming committee.

This follows ATM MP and leader Vuyolwethu Zungula’s refusal on Wednesday to move the motion in the House for debate, along with the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) now defeated motion of no confidence in Ramaphosa’s Cabinet.

ALSO READ: ATM refuses to participate in no confidence motion against Ramaphosa

Zungula argued that their court application challenging Mapisa-Nqakula’s decision to decline their request for a secret ballot was still sub judice, even though the Western Cape High Court on Monday struck from the urgent court roll their application.

ATM’s motion lapses

During the programming committee’s meeting on Thursday, MPs were undecided on whether to postpone the motion or to either request ATM to withdraw their motion until the high court rules on their main application.

Mapisa-Nqakula said because ATM chose not to move their motion on Wednesday, this meant that their motion had lapsed and would be removed from the order paper.

“If a member chooses not to move a motion at the time for which it has been programmed, the motion lapses,” she said.

The speaker said ATM would be given an opportunity to resubmit their motion after the high court rules on their main application.

“When ATM is ready with the motion, it can always resubmit the motion to the speaker of Parliament. For now honourable members, I have nothing to postpone, you did not move your own motion and you cited that the matter was between yourself and the courts.

“And as far as our own processes are determined here, therefore the motion has lapsed until you resubmit a motion when the circumstances in your case change,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.

READ MORE: ATM’s urgent court application over secret ballot struck from the roll

Earlier, Zungula maintained that the high court ruling on their urgent court bid did not mean that their case was thrown out of court.

He urged Mapisa-Nqakula to postpone their motion, instead of removing it from the order paper entirely.

“On Monday, the judge struck the case off the urgent court roll [and] the case merits were not discussed and they were not dismissed.

“The fact that the judge deemed it not to be urgent, that does not mean there is no existing case or there is no existing court process,” Zungula said.

Putting ‘pressure’ on ATM

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and United Democratic Movement (UDM) agreed with ATM that their motion should be postponed.

EFF MP Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi said Parliament should allow the court process to continue and not put pressure on ATM to withdraw their motion.

“Let us not put pressure on them and allow the court processes,” Mkhaliphi said.

“The matter is still sub judice and therefore we can’t just bully them. Let us just postpone the matter. I don’t think there will be any harm in postponing it because they feel very strongly about the matter being on the agenda.”

ATM ‘holding Parliament ransom’

However, the African National Congress (ANC), Democratic Alliance (DA), GOOD party and the Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) disagreed with postponing the matter.

They said ATM was holding Parliament ransom because its motion – remaining on the order paper – meant that by implication other parties were blocked from tabling similar motions.

ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina said the motion should be removed from the order paper to ensure that other parties are not prejudiced.

“At the right time when ATM is done with all their court proceedings, they will approach the National Assembly’s programming committee. It is this committee that has allowed the matter to be on the programme,” Majodina said.

“We have 14 parties in this National Assembly and all these parties want to introduce motions and we cannot be held at ransom.”

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