UDM secret ballot application assumes ANC MPs ‘cowardly and spineless’ - Mbete

13 April 2017 - 15:21 By Roxanne Henderson
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Jacob Zuma speaking at the tombstone unveiling of the late minister in the presidency Collins Chabane.
Jacob Zuma speaking at the tombstone unveiling of the late minister in the presidency Collins Chabane.
Image: Masi Losi

President Jacob Zuma and Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete have both filed answering papers in the United Democratic Movement's (UDM) secret ballot Constitutional Court application.

The UDM is seeking the use of a secret ballot in the pending motion of no confidence against the president and has approached the court directly.

Zuma on Thursday filed an affidavit opposing the UDM's application‚ saying that voting by way of an open ballot vote is not unconstitutional‚ as claimed by the UDM.

“The applicant appears to concede that the Constitution is silent on whether such a vote should be open or secret. This concession already admits that a secret vote is not inconsistent with the relevant provision of the Constitution. For that reason alone‚ the relief sought by the applicant is not competent.”

The president also argued that the UDM's claim that MPs participating in the motion of no confidence vote could be intimidated or suffer career-limiting consequences if the vote is done openly is spurious and without evidence.

Speaker Baleka Mbete also filed an affidavit at the court in which she said she is “personally not averse to having a motion of no confidence in the President being decided by secret ballot”.

“I am however‚ bound by the Constitution of the Rules that the (National Assembly) has adopted. Accordingly‚ I have no authority or discretion to accede to the applicant's request.”

Mbete said the UDM should have approached Parliament’s rules committee.

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“I respectfully submit that this application has no merit; it does not fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of this Court; it does not meet the requirements for direct access‚ it is calculated to embroil this Court in political controversy in a matter that involved a violation of the principle of separation of powers and it is grounded on the assumption that the members of the NA‚ particularly the African National Congress‚ are weak-kneed‚ timid‚ cowardly‚ unprincipled and spineless persons‚ which assumption I am not prepared to make‚” Mbete said.

In the UDM's application‚ leader Bantu Holomisa said that whenever members of the National Assembly were called upon to elect the president‚ this must take place via secret ballot. It therefore follows that when members seek to express motions of no confidence in the president‚ a secret ballot must also be used‚ he argued.

“The UDM’s case is that on a proper construction of the relevant constitutional provisions and the Rules of the National Assembly‚ a secret ballot is required in respect of the motion of no confidence concerned.”

Holomisa said the rules of the National Assembly did not preclude the use of a secret ballot for a motion of no confidence.

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