Opposition parties have welcomed Speaker of the National Assembly Baleka Mbete's decision to hold a secret ballot on the motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma and called on ANC MPs to use the opportunity to do the right thing.
During a media conference held by the leaders of most of the opposition parties‚ UDM leader Bantu Holomisa who led the legal battle for a secret ballot said he hoped all MPs in Parliament would use the opportunity to "put South Africa first".
"It's time for public representatives to honor their oath of office‚" he said.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane said the decision was "historic" and he hoped it allowed MPs to exercise their conscience "freely and fairly".
EFF leader Julius Malema said Mbete's decision appeared to be against the party line‚ and he hoped that her example would allow ANC MPs to feel like they too could do the same.
"If Baleka went against the party line‚ in the open‚ what stops an ANC MP from going against the line in secret?" he asked.
Malema was confident that enough ANC MPs could vote against Zuma to remove him from office.
IFP chief whip Narend Singh said that while ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu had previously indicated that a removal of the president could be a "nuclear bomb"‚ he hoped that this bomb would be "cleansing"‚ ridding the country of "graft and corruption".
He was hopeful that South African's would wake up to Mbete as acting president on Women's Day.
COPE leader Mosiuoa Lekota called the decision "groundbreaking" and said that it now placed the responsibility "squarely on the shoulders of the men and women in Parliament".
Leader of the ACDP Revered Kenneth Meshoe said was he was "delighted that rationality has prevailed" while the Freedom Front Plus' Pieter Groenewald was slightly more guarded in his response.
Groenewald said while he welcomed the decision about the secret ballot‚ he hoped that it had not been made because the ANC and Mbete had been so confident that ANC MPs would toe the party line.
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