Opposition parties the ATM and UDM have asked Parliament Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to review her decision to deny MPs an opportunity to vote via secret ballot when Parliament decides whether to proceed with an impeachment committee for President Cyril Ramaphosa.
They said that the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) decision on Monday, that the party would vote against the adoption of the Section 89 independent panel report as it was being taken on review, meant an instruction had been given to party members and only a secret ballot would allow them to vote with their conscience and not along party lines.
In refusing the secret ballot, Mapisa-Nqakula on Monday said that an open and transparent procedure for voting could only bring about public trust and confidence in the Assembly and the democratic dispensation.
Parliament will sit next Tuesday and debate the matter after the panel report found that there was prima facie evidence that Ramaphosa may have violated the Constitution.
ATM leader Vuyo Zungula said comments made by ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina, who told a journalist that it “was very emphatic and unambiguous that ANC members are in Parliament to represent the ANC on a proportional representation basis and that they will have to toe the party line”, illustrated the angst felt by those who wanted to do the right thing.
“This again makes it untenable for ANC members to vote according to their conscience as contemplated by the Speaker.
“Against this background it is very clear that the objectives of the Speaker and the oath of office for members of the National Assembly, in particular the ANC members, including the sovereignty of Parliament, will be better served when the voting is carried out by secret ballot.
“The ATM therefore requests the Speaker to review her position in line with the polarisation that has been brought about by the ANC NEC directive and accede to a secret ballot so that the decision becomes rational, constitutional and in line with this new development,” Zungula said.
He accused the ANC of trying to shield Ramaphosa from public scrutiny and accountability and said they were aware that some ANC MPs were not comfortable with how the NEC had instructed them to vote. The party has asked Mapisa-Nqakula to respond by Friday.
UDM leader Bantu Holomisa has also written to the Speaker to ask that she reconsider her position on a secret ballot.
“To argue corruptibility and influencing members to vote in a manner where they will be shielded from accountability, is flimsy at best and is tantamount to undermining people’s intelligence,” Holomisa said.
In his letter, Holomisa said there might be victimisation of members who wanted to vote according to their conscience.
He said all members of the National Assembly had taken an oath or affirmation to respect and uphold the Constitution and all other laws of the country.
DA leader John Steenhuisen and EFF leader Julius Malema have indicated that they were unfazed by a roll-call voting system as opposed to a secret ballot.
Malema said they would go to court if the ANC voted against a process that would allow Parliament to further investigate the allegations against the president.
“And if the ANC votes against the panel, we will meet in court … there is no Parliament that is going to reject that panel, we will meet in court,” Malema said earlier this week.
On Monday, Ramaphosa filed papers at the Constitutional Court for a review of the panel report, saying that he wanted direct access to the highest court in the land because of the serious nature of the recommendations contained in the report.
In court papers, Ramaphosa said he was requesting direct access to the apex court as “this is an application for a decision of the kind contemplated by section 167 (4) (e) of the Constitution in that the court is asked to decide that the Panel, an organ of the National Assembly, failed to fulfil its obligations in terms of section 89 of the Constitution read with the rules of the National Assembly”.
Holomisa described these as “Stalingrad tactics” and said his party was disappointed, but not surprised.
“It is clear that the application is only a tactic by the president to delay his inevitable impeachment and removal from office due to the multiple breaches of the Constitution and allegedly criminal conduct until the ANC conference next week,” Holomisa said.