DA and ANC finally agree on one thing – rejecting no confidence motion against Ramaphosa

While the proposed motion of no confidence against President Cyril Ramaphosa has been postponed by agreement of political parties at the Western Cape High Court on Thursday, the majority of parties appeared to be ready to reject it.

The governing ANC and the official opposition, the DA, apparently agreed that the African Transformation Movement’s attempt to oust President Cyril Ramaphosa and his cabinet via a motion of no confidence, should not see the light of the day. Although the DA pledged to abstain from the vote, it made it clear that it was opposed to the motion.

Party leader John Steenhuisen said they hoped the DA abstention would have made Ramaphosa’s heart grow stronger.

DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone said the ATM motion was a waste of parliamentary time, describing it a “frivolous internal ANC factional battle” playing itself out on the floor of Parliament.

She confirmed that the DA would abstain from the vote, even when it comes to Parliament next year.

Mazzone said: “Abstaining is by no means a vote in support of President Ramaphosa. It is instead our refusal to be drawn into a messy battle brewing in the ANC, we will continue to hold the president and his government to account using parliamentary and legal processes.”

The ANC and the DA had combined 314 seats out of 393 in the National Assembly.

The ATM on Thursday requested Parliament to postpone the motion, pending their court application to compel Speaker Thandi Modise to allow for a secret ballot vote. The Western Cape High Court is expected to hear the application on 3 February 2021.

However, perhaps by insisting on a secret ballot, the ATM had a secret weapon. Most interesting would be seeing whether it had successfully lobbied Ramaphosa’s opponents within the ANC to vote against him if the Western Cape High Court ruled in ATM’s favour.

The tiny party, with only two MPs, might also be hoping for the support of the Economic Freedom Fighters, the third biggest party in the House. The EFF is famous for flip-flopping on its policies and stances on various matters, depending on what its leaders had in mind at a particular moment.

Should a no confidence motion against the president succeed, the president and his Cabinet would have to resign and a national election held.

ANC MPs spoke with confidence during the sitting of the National Assembly, saying they were eager for the debate on the matter. Both the Deputy Minister of State Security Zizi Kodwa and ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina’s remarks showed their disappointment at the postponement of the motion to 4 February.

“As the ANC we were ready for the motion. I’m certain even if you bring it back on 25th of December, we would still be ready,” Kodwa said.

Majodina said: “We were rearing for that motion.”

New ANC MP, BM Radebe, described the ATM as a party led by “Benny and Betty” and rejected the motion as a “frivolous, spurious, misguided and cantakarous motion”. “We must send a very clear and unequivocal message to them, secret ballot or not, they cannot win that which they failed to win on the ground,” Radebe said.

With Majodina and Kodwa being considered influencers within the ANC Ramaphosa Camp, it appeared clear that the ANC would protect its president and ensure he was kept in his position as the head of state.

EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu, however, warned Kodwa that he could be shocked by the results of the vote.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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