Failed DA motion to dissolve Parliament draws scorn

EFF deputy leader Floyd Shivambu File photo: ANA

EFF deputy leader Floyd Shivambu File photo: ANA

Published Sep 6, 2017

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Cape Town - All the parties in Parliament have overwhelmingly rejected the DA’s motion to dissolve the National Assembly, with the ANC describing it as an attempt to undermine the voters.

With a majority of 229 MPs rejecting the motion, the DA managed to get 83 votes from its MPs, and there were seven members who abstained. 

The ANC and other parties on Tuesday accused the DA of circumventing democratic processes and urged it to wait for the next elections in 2019.

ANC MP Richard Mdakane and chief whip Jackson Mthembu said the motion was not even supported by the entire DA caucus, with some of its MPs refusing to back it.

EFF deputy leader Floyd Shivambu went a step further and warned the DA to stop undermining them.

Shivambu said the DA had appropriated itself as a party that could take over from the ANC, adding that it wanted to take all the glory in the motion of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma last month despite support from other opposition parties as well as ANC MPs. 

Mthembu said the DA was undermining millions of voters who elected them in 2014, and their mandate ends in 2019.

“The irony of this particular motion is that it exposes the contradictions within the DA itself, with members of the DA lobbying the ANC to vote against it in this afternoon’s vote. 

“Even their coalition partners have distanced themselves from this desperate motion,” said Mthembu’s spokesperson, Nonceba Mhlauli. 

DA chief whip John Steenhuisen said the motion was to remove the ANC from office, because it had failed to act against Zuma.

He said Zuma had sold the country to the Guptas and collapsed the economy and the state institutions.

Steenhuisen added that the cost of keeping Zuma in office for another two years would be higher than the cost of holding early elections. 

Shivambu said they rejected the DA’s motion. He warned the DA not to undermine them.

“We gave the DA an opportunity on August 8, but it made a tactical mistake by wanting to take all the glory. Don’t undermine us. Don’t undermine other parties… 

“You know it was a multiparty process, you now say you want to dissolve Parliament. Who gave you the mandate to dissolve Parliament? 

“You are going to offend people who were going to give you the responsibility to lead the country (in 2019),” said Shivambu.

The IFP, NFP, ACDP and UDM also rejected the DA’s motion.

IFP chief whip Narend Singh warned the DA not to “do a Theresa May” and call for early polls.

This was in reference to the British prime minister who called for early elections but failed to get an outright majority in Westminster. She was forced into a coalition government with an Irish party.

Political Bureau

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