Zuma to face new no confidence motion

South African President Jacob Zuma, speaks during the opening session inside parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015. Security guards entered South Africa's parliament on Thursday to remove opposition lawmakers who disrupted an annual address by President Jacob Zuma to demand that he answer questions about a spending scandal. (AP Photo/Rodger Bosch, Pool)

South African President Jacob Zuma, speaks during the opening session inside parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015. Security guards entered South Africa's parliament on Thursday to remove opposition lawmakers who disrupted an annual address by President Jacob Zuma to demand that he answer questions about a spending scandal. (AP Photo/Rodger Bosch, Pool)

Published Mar 5, 2015

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Parliament, Cape Town - President Jacob Zuma faced another vote of no confidence after Parliament acknowledged receipt of a motion tabled by the country’s largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA) on Thursday.

DA parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane wrote to Speaker Baleka Mbete shortly after one of the smaller parties, AGANG-SA, abandoned a similar motion on Tuesday in apparent protest of Mbete’s refusal to allow a secret ballot.

“The Democratic Alliance has condemned this act of wasting South Africa and Parliament’s time by trivialising such an important matter,” Maimane said.

Maimane said they were tabling the motion on the grounds that under Zuma’s leadership the country’s independent institutions had been politicised, unemployment had escalated, and the economy was at its weakest point in history.

“It is important for the country’s constitutional democracy that the National Assembly, which elected the President and is constitutionally obligated to hold him accountable, reflects on his fitness to hold Office and the impact of his presidency on society. Furthermore, South Africans deserve to hear this debate of national importance.”

Zuma’s African National Congress said while it believed there was no factual motivation for the motion of no confidence, it was ready for a debate.

“The ANC is therefore always ready to reaffirm the confidence of the great majority of South Africans in the capable leadership of President Jacob Zuma and his executive,” ANC chief whip Stone Sizani’s office said in a statement.

“We stand ready to demonstrate, through facts, the great strides we have made together with the South African people in relation to the social and economic transformation of this country to improve our people’s material conditions.”

ANA

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