President Cyril Ramaphosa’s foes in and outside of the ANC can forget about winning their battle against him in parliament for now.
The motion to debate seems set to be dead in the water even before the first ballot is cast after the party yesterday announced that it will instruct its members to vote against the impeachment process.
As many as 100 ANC members of parliament would have to be absent or go against the party line and all other MPs would have to go with if the motion to is to succeed.
ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile yesterday announced that the party would instruct all its members to vote against the motion to set up the process that could conclude with an impeachment process against Ramaphosa.
Mashatile said the ANC expected all its deployees to abide by the party’s instruction.
While some members have expressed that they will vote for the impeachment process, this is unlikely to have a bearing on tomorrow’s parliamentary process.
The ANC has 230 MPs (or 57, 5%) in the 400-member National Assembly. A simple majority is required for the motion to carry. According to the Constitution, one third (132) MPs need to be available in the legislature for the motion to be heard and a simple majority is needed for a decision to be made.
The top five opposition parties have 156 MPs between themselves with the DA making the bulk (84) of these seats.
The Cope (2) and Al Jama-ah (1) have previously indicated they would not be lending their collective three votes to the tabled motion. The Good Party, whose leader Patricia de Lille is public works minister, has consistently voted with the ANC and it is expected to continue in this trend.
ANC presidency hopeful Zweli Mkhize’s team has expressed disappointment over the NEC and NWC’s decision to railroad all MPs to vote in a particular way.
“The s89 [section 89] panel report has found that there are a number of questions which the president has to answer on this Phala Phala scandal. There can be no better opportunity for the president to answer these, with a view to clearing his name, than this parliamentary impeachment process.
“It therefore comes as a major surprise if the NEC decides to scupper this process, especially given that it has itself previously called upon the president to do the exact same thing the s89 panel report is recommending,” said Mkhize’s spokesperson, Vuyo Mkhize.
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