ANC Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu says the party’s representatives who bunked the parliamentary sitting on Tuesday will be held accountable.
The party had given a three-line whip to its members to attend the parliamentary session where President Jacob Zuma narrowly survived a motion of no-confidence, but about 20 MPs did not attend.
Speaking on Talk Radio 702 on Wednesday, Mthembu revealed that there were many MPs who would have to explain why they stayed away from the vote on Tuesday.
This includes Deputy Minister for Higher Education Mduduzi Manana, who has been in the news for allegedly assaulting a woman in a nightclub in Johannesburg.
It would not be the first time the ANC has done this. A few years ago, it probed the absence of 33 MPs during the vote on the Secrecy Bill.
Two former MPs, Ben Turok and Gloria Borman, were subsequently charged for stepping out of Parliament before the vote took place.
The ANC has 249 seats in Parliament. Two of its MPs, Timothy Khoza and Trevor Bonhomme, died recently.
However, of the more than 220 ANC MPs who attended, only 198 voted to reprieve Zuma.
During the voting, some ANC members broke ranks to vote with the opposition and also abstained.
But Mthembu said on Tuesday his focus was not on the numbers, but on the fact that they had defeated the motion.
“Yes there might have been some members of the ANC who voted with the opposition, but for now the most important aspect is that this vote of no-confidence has been defeated.”
Meanwhile, a list containing MPs suspected to have voted with the opposition is doing the rounds on social media.
But Mthembu described the list as “bogus”. He said there would be no witch-hunt of those who voted against Zuma during the secret ballot.
“We will not be going on a witch-hunt. We are not that type of organisation, unlike other organisations.”
He said the ANC needed to reflect on the matters that were of concern to its members and the public.