Johannesburg - The office of the African National Congress (ANC) Chief Whip on Monday slammed the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) call for a no confidence motion against President Jacob Zuma, saying it was a diversion from racism scandals bedeviling the opposition party.
In a statement, the office of the ANC chief whip said it was “well aware that the DA’s scheduled no confidence motion and its undemocratic calls for the recusal of the members of the executive from the debate is nothing but a ploy to try and divert the public’s attention from the racism scandals embarrassing the party on an ongoing basis”.
Parliament’s programming committee agreed to hear the no confidence motion on Tuesday.
MPs will debate the DA’s motion of no confidence against Zuma and then vote on the matter. The official opposition wants a vote, by secret ballot, and for cabinet ministers not to participate because of a “conflict of interest”.
But the ANC Chief Whip’s office was dismissive of the DA move, saying: “No provision in the Constitution precludes democratically elected MPs from participating in parliamentary debate or voting on no confidence motions. We urge members of the executive to ignore the nonsensical letters and refuse to dignify them with responses.”
The ANC has the majority and its chief whip’s office said it was confident of beating the motion by opposition leader Mmusi Maimane.
“We will undoubtedly defeat the DA’s misguided motion and condemn it to the rubbish bin of history through superior arguments to reaffirm the confidence of the great majority of South Africans in the leadership of President Jacob Zuma and his executive,” said the ANC Chief Whip’s office.
“The continuing abuse of parliamentary processes through futile gimmicks wastes Parliament’s time and distract it from its real work of serving the people.”
The ANC was of the view that the no confidence vote was a ploy to divert attention from the racism scandals it said was rocking the DA.
“Week after week the country is confronted with new revelations of racism perpetrated by white DA leaders and rank and file members.”
“Instead of expending his energies on rooting out racism and proving that he is in firm control of the party, Mmusi Maimane engages in diversionary publicity stunts whose intention is to cloak racism.”
“The DA deflection attempts are not only desperate but they also border on the absurd. The letters that the party has been writing to individual members of the executive demanding that they recuse themselves from participating in the motion debate are unconstitutional, exceed the acceptable bounds of parliamentary oversight and amount to undemocratic tactics.
African News Agency
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