Cape Town - The DA motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday did little but further entrench party political battle lines, with the odd statistic thrown in by either side of the House to make a point amid robust politicking.
As expected, after a terse points-of-order interrupted debate, ANC numbers held sway: the motion was defeated with 221 votes against, 113 for and eight abstentions. But not before engineers had to be called in as the electronic voting system froze.
Throughout the almost 90-minute debate, ANC heckles and points of order interrupted opposition speakers on the podium with the exception of the IFP, which did not support the motion but spoke strongly against the “indifference” and “ambiguity” over the Nkandla upgrades.
The DA gave back as good as it got, particularly when Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu was branded “a batty lunatic” by DA MP David Maynier, who has for years tried to get to the bottom of her flight schedules while in the defence portfolio.
Opposition parties raised Zuma’s failure to take responsibility for the R215 million taxpayer-funded Nkandla security upgrades and the Marikana police killings. Each then picked their preference from other scandals - from the landing of the Gupta wedding guests at the military Air Force Base Waterkloof to selective appointments in the criminal justice system.
But it was United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa, who in rapid-fire delivery, made practical points after arguing Zuma was “not only… at the centre of the mayhem, in fact, he is the cause”.
The time was ripe, he said, to discuss an “amicable” solution for Zuma to step down - “Can the ANC please take back President Zuma and prevent him from running (government)?” he asked. The electoral system should be changed so that citizens, not political parties, directly vote for the president, he added.
The ANC labelled the motion nothing but a desperate attempt by a desperate DA with little to offer. The motion was “garbage”, “frivolous” and should be “thrown into the rubbish bin” it said.
“After much noise, as sure as the sun will rise from the East, President Jacob Zuma will still be president. I wish the opposition could learn to live with this fact…” said Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe, the first ANC speaker.
Sisulu followed suit: “Your (DA) light is spent. Right now the ratings on Twitter indicate, Honourable (DA parliamentary leader Mmusi) Maimane, you are a desperate man trying to prop up a desperate party, you are clutching (to) for relevance”.
Deputy Justice Minister John Jeffery said the motion was an attempt to change the outcome of last year’s elections: “Honourable Maimane, you are being disrespectful of democracy and… of voters”.
Radebe highlighted job creation numbers; Sisulu the billions of rand the Special Investigating Unit had saved the country in its fight against corruption; and, Jeffery outlined increased school enrollment and financial support to tertiary students.
English classic literature featured - from Sisulu quoting a John Milton sonnet on blindness, DA MP James Selfe Shakespeare’s Macbeth line “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”, while IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi made a sharp comparison to Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.
But the persistent heckles had little to do with literature. It started when Maimane, in reference to Zuma, said the ANC would “vote for a thief”, at which point ANC chief whip Stone Sizani raised a point of order. Eventually Maimane withdrew his remark. Not so EFF MP Primrose Sonti, who made a similar comment over the Nkandla upgrades, and was also challenged by Sizani. “I’m not Maimane. I am Primrose Sonti!… Withdraw? Never”, she said and walked off the podium after a spirited address in Xhosa, highlighting the 2012 killing of miners at her home of Marikana.
Earlier an ANC backbencher had to withdrew her comments that drugs were found in Maimane’s church - the DA parliamentary leader is also a pastor - but claimed she knew nothing about being high.
At the end of a debate in which Freedom Front Plus MP Pieter Groenewald described Zuma as “a run-away president”, ACDP MP Steve Swart expressed concern “about the state of the nation under Zuma’s watch” and Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota said Zuma “had failed the country”, Maimane got the last word: “Here’s your simple choice: You can either choose Nkandla or ordinary people. The choice is whether we choose President Zuma or the people of South Africa. I choose the people of South Africa and say: ‘The president must go’.”
Political Bureau