Cape Town - The ANC’s bid to impeach Western Cape Premier Helen Zille over the spying saga that recently erupted in the province has failed, with the DA outmanoeuvring the opposition, voting instead to amend the ANC’s motion so it now endorses Zille’s “outstanding leadership”.
The ANC had failed in its bid to get the debate on the impeachment moved to the top of proceedings in the Western Cape legislature.
The DA MPLs voted against the move, leaving the motion to have Zille kicked out of office as the last item on the order paper.
The debate started only shortly before 7pm, with ANC provincial leader Marius Fransman outlining why the ANC wanted Zille removed from office.
Fransman said the ANC was bringing the draft resolution because of the very serious allegations of “dishonourable, illegal acts as well as serious misconduct” allegedly committed by Zille.
He said the ANC had laid official charges against her for having violated laws and cabinet policy relating to her appointment of a police officer to provide her with intelligence in his private capacity.
Fransman said: “The mere action of procuring the services of (Paul) Scheepers is in itself an illegal act as it violates our security legislation, namely, among others, the national strategic intelligence act as well as the ministerial handbook.
“Our legislation is clear that the only people who may provide security services, such as debugging and encryption, to our government, including national and provincial cabinet members, is our state security agency, unless they provide permission for an approved service provider to provide such service.”
In his response to Fransman, DA chief whip in the legislature Mark Wiley said the resolution was “farcical, procedurally incorrect and an abuse of the House”.
“It does not qualify as a substantive motion – it has no substance. Despite repeated requests, the ANC could not provide any facts for this resolution, but simply plucked irrelevant clauses from laws and guides out of the air.”
Wiley motioned a formal amendment to the draft resolution that the House fully endorses the “outstanding leadership of the premier of the Western Cape”, which was approved by the House after 23 members voted in favour against the ANC’s 14 votes.
Zille challenged Fransman to subject himself to a lifestyle audit. “We have not broken a single law or a single clause of the constitution.”
She said just because the ANC was making wild allegations did not mean they were true. “Instead it just means the dead opposite… Neither I, nor the cabinet took a resolution to spy on anyone.”
Zille said Fransman should “come clean” about the names of “front-companies he did business through in the Northern and Eastern Cape”.
“Maybe he wants to say a few things about the shareholders… about the petrol garage near Worcester… and the role of his wife and the shareholders. He is desperate because he knows a lot of people have uncovered a lot of facts about him. He is trying to claim that what people know about him was through illegal spying and if he can say in court it came from illegal surveillance, he can try to get that evidence made inadmissible in court.”
Fransman claimed Zille’s remarks were “bulls**t”.
Earlier on Tuesday a DA protest outside the ANC’s Sahara House headquarters in the city became heated with verbal insults and obscene gestures hurled between members of the political rivals. There was also pushing and shoving.
DA members chanted “phantsi Zuma (down with Zuma)”, “Zuma must go to jail” and “Viva, Zille”, in response to an article published last month about President Jacob Zuma reportedly meeting with gang bosses in the province, allegedly promising support and assistance with tax issues in return for voting ANC.
DA provincial leader Patricia de Lille told the crowd that Zuma has more than 700 charges against him and he is still in Parliament. “Hands off Zille, you will not touch Zille,” she said, adding that the president belongs in jail.
Highlighting Zuma’s and Fransman’s alleged links with Cape Flats gangsters, De Lille said: “Birds of a feather flock together. Jy is soos gangsters (You are like gangsters).”
De Lille said the ANC’s attempt to impeach Zille over allegations of spying were hypocritical.
Zille then took the platform, saying: “President Zuma met with gangsters and they spoke about how they were going solve the tax problems of the gangsters and then Jacob Zuma asked the gangsters to help the ANC win the Western Cape.
“He has not denied it. He has not sued the paper so we accept it is true.”
She said people had rejected the ANC and the party was trying to use gangs to make the Western Cape ungovernable.
“This is the type of criminal we have in the union buildings… It is a disgrace,” she said.
Deputy provincial leader Bonginkosi Madikizela said the DA would never allow the province to be run by gangsters. “This party (ANC) represents just that,” he said.
DA supporters broke out in song, chanting: “We are ready, we are ready for 2016.”
ANC provincial executive committee member Andile Lili rejected the DA’s allegations: “Zille is busy losing her mind. It is all a lie; they are the ones who have links with gang bosses in Cape Town.”
He said it was bizarre that the DA, which runs the provincial government and the city, would protest at the Western Cape headquarters of the ANC, which isn’t in charge. “We have no power here, no resources, we don’t have anything. They are abusing their powers,” Lili said.
ANC supporters who had come to meet the DA were quick to point out that a DA councillor had asked for leniency in the sentencing of a known gangster.
“They are hypocrites, their members actually pleaded with the courts to go easy on a violent gangster. The DA should sweep in front of their own door,” the supporter said.
In a statement, the ANC said it was typical of the DA to use their black voters to “do all their dirty work, to do the marches and pickets on the streets and in courts”.
“The truth cannot be hidden any more. Helen Zille is a liar. Who is she fooling that on first meeting with Scheepers, she just handed over her cellphone for debugging. Zille’s ease with the suspended Scheepers speaks of the backhanded approach of this provincial government to gangsters and crime,” the statement read.
Cape Argus
* Use IOL’s Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.