LISTEN | Parliament speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula rejects secret ballot on Phala Phala report

National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has declined a request by the African Transformation Movement (ATM) for voting on the section 89 independent panel report to be held by secret ballot.

This after ATM leader Vuyo Zungula wrote to Mapisa-Nqakula asking that she consider allowing MPs to vote through a secret ballot on Tuesday after the debate on the report into whether President Cyril Ramaphosa violated the constitution.

The speaker is empowered to exercise her discretion in determining the voting method to be employed to decide questions before the house, where no voting method is prescribed in the rules of the National Assembly.

Mapisa-Nqakula wrote back to the ATM justifying her decision to reject the secret ballot request.

“A closed voting procedure will deprive the citizens of identifying the positions of their representatives across party lines and that this may facilitate the possibility of corruption aimed at influencing members to vote in a manner where they will be shielded from accountability to the people they represent for the exercise of their constitutional duty,” she said.

Mapisa-Nqakula said she had to balance Zungula’s reasons for requesting a secret ballot against other “imperatives”.

“This includes the foundational constitutional principle of 'openness', as set out in section 1(d) of the constitution which guides SA democratic order.”

The constitutional requirement, as set out in section 59(1)(b), that the National Assembly must conduct its proceedings in an open manner, was also an important consideration in this case, she said.

These constitutional imperatives were equally compelling for the National Assembly to uphold when considered against her assessment of the prevailing political atmosphere in the country at present, Mapisa-Nqakula said.

“An open and transparent procedure followed by the assembly to exercise this important decision on the section 89 independent panel report can only bring about public trust and confidence in the assembly and our democratic dispensation.”

The debate is scheduled to take place in parliament on Tuesday. It is expected to be the most crucial debate since Ramaphosa took office, possibly deciding his political fate.

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