Secret ballot for Phala Phala impeachment vote turned down

National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has turned down the African Transformation Movement’s (ATM) request to have the impeachment vote against President Cyril Ramaphosa by secret ballot.

Secret ballot

ATM leader Vuyo Zungula had called for a secret ballot on 1 December.

“We are going to [ask] the Speaker that the consideration must be done by means of a secret ballot next week. That is the only way in which we are going to guarantee that members will indeed vote with their conscience and there is nothing that is going to happen to the members should they decide to defy their party instructions,” said Zungula.

MPs will meet on Tuesday to decide if the Section 89 panel report should be adopted. If the report is adopted, impeachment proceedings could follow.

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Partisan voting

Mapisa-Nqakula’s decision to not allow a secret ballot means that it will be publicly known if any ANC members decide to vote against Ramaphosa.

“In her letter to the ATM president, the Speaker said she believes that a closed voting procedure will deprive the citizens of identifying the positions of their representatives across party lines and that this may facilitate the possibility of corruption aimed at influencing members to vote in a manner where they will be shielded from accountability to the people they represent for the exercise of their constitutional duty,” said Parliament’s spokesperson Moloto Mothapo.

Mothapo said Mapisa-Nqakula had to balance Zungula’s reasons for a secret ballot against the Constitutional principle of “openness”.

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ANC MPs are expected to vote against the report on Tuesday. On Sunday, at the party’s national working committee (NWC) meeting, members decided that the Phala Phala report was flawed.

Phala Phala report

The president is under pressure to step down after the Section 89 panel report found that he might have violated the Constitution and anti-corruption laws with some business deals on his Phala Phala game farm.

This after Ramaphosa was accused of contravening foreign currency laws and covering up a burglary on his farm in which millions of US Dollars were allegedly stolen.

Ramaphosa, however, can appeal the panel’s report at the Constitutional Court.

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