EFF motion to unseat speaker Mapisa-Nqakula set for March 7

An EFF motion of no confidence in National Assembly (NA) speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula will be debated on March 7.

The party’s request for the house to debate Mapisa-Nqakula’s fitness to hold office was approved by her deputy Lechesa Tsenoli this week.

“The deputy speaker has considered the matter and we have scheduled it for March 7,” ANC MP Mina Lesoma told the assembly’s programming committee meeting on Thursday. Lesoma is the NA’s programming whip.

The EFF claims Mapisa-Nqakula is irresponsible and acted unconstitutionally on February 9 when police entered the chamber to remove EFF MPs who stormed the stage where President Cyril Ramaphosa was making his state of the nation address.

EFF leader Julius Malema wrote to Tsenoli to consider the motion to remove Mapisa-Nqakula in terms of the constitution and rules of the National Assembly.

The constitution states: “The National Assembly may remove the speaker or deputy speaker from office by a resolution. A majority of the members of the assembly must be present when the resolution is adopted.”

Malema accused Mapisa-Nqakula of failing to act “fairly and impartially”, saying she “conducted herself in an irresponsible, unconstitutional and unacceptable manner when she called members of the security services to come inside the chamber and remove duly elected MPs for carrying out their constitutional mandate”.

He said the speaker disregarded the constitution, which grants MPs the right to free expression when “she wanted to suppress MPs for raising points of order as permitted by the rules of the National Assembly”.

“The speaker failed to follow the procedure outlined in the rules for removing MPs from the chamber, instead relying on her biases and [e]motions which resulted in shameful violence against MPs,” said Malema.

He said when Mapisa-Nqakula referred to MPs as “animals”, she disqualified herself as one who can ensure parties represented in the assembly participate fully in proceedings.

Parliament has rejected the EFF claim that Mapisa-Nqakula referred to its MPs as animals. It said the claim was baseless and misleading. The EFF says it will seek a secret ballot vote for the motion.

“We should do it on a secret ballot because of past victimisation of MPs when they are not voting according to what they are forced to by the so-called party line,” said EFF MP Natasha Ntlangwini on Thursday.

Mapisa-Nqakula, who presided over the meeting, said Tsenoli will handle the matter of a secret ballot and whether the sitting to debate the motion will be “a fully physical sitting”.  

Mapisa-Nqakula is not the first speaker to face a motion of no confidence from opposition parties. Previously, similar motions were tabled against former speaker Baleka Mbete but failed. 

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