Cape Town - The ANC on Wednesday laid into the DA over its rejected impeachment motion, calling the opposition party misguided and accusing it of pushing an “imperialist” agenda.
“The (ANC) welcomes the National Assembly’s rejection of the DA’s misguided and publicity-driven ‘impeachment motion’ last night,” said ANC national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa.
On Tuesday in Parliament, the DA brought a motion to impeach President Jacob Zuma for government’s handling of the visit by Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir to South Africa in June, having allowed him to leave the country despite a ruling against this by the North Gauteng High Court.
However, the bid failed after the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the United Democratic Movement (UDM) did not support the motion.
Kodwa called the attempt “groundless, a blatant abuse of serious constitutional provisions, and a mockery of our democratic Parliament”. He added that elsewhere in the world, constitutional provisions speaking to the removal of a president were taken seriously and were “not abused for silly political games as the DA frequently does”.
Kodwa also said that the motion showed the DA was serving an “imperialist agenda”. He said their persistence in calling for the arrest of al-Bashir illustrated their disregard for “African unity, cohesion, and political stability”.
“The motion and its associated proposals read like imperialist’ pamphlet designed to undermine the African continent and the great efforts by our government to resolve the Sudanese crises to bring about stability to that sister nation,” he said.
Taking a swipe at DA leader Mmusi Maimane’s introduction, where he cited an article in the Washington Post, Kodwa said it “was a chilling reminder regarding whose agenda the DA is parroting through this motion”. The Washington Post is an American daily newspaper and online news site. It is owned by 51-year-old American businessman and founder of Amazon.com Jeff Bezos.
Kodwa said the DA failed to comprehend the complexities surrounding the al-Bashir case and as such risked worsening the political situation in Sudan and compromising the safety of South African soldiers serving there.
“The question is: whose interest are [the DA] serving?” said Kodwa, “Who is pulling their strings?”.
ANA