Zuma Can Fall in January 2016

14 December 2015

I have today written to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete MP, demanding on behalf of South Africa that the National Assembly debate a Motion of No Confidence in President Jacob Zuma at the first sitting opportunity in 2016.

I have petitioned the Speaker, in terms of Rule 102A of the National Assembly that a Motion of No Confidence in President Zuma must be urgently scheduled because the nation has entirely lost confidence in Jacob Zuma as our President.

Parliament has been scheduled to open on 12 February 2016, but South Africa cannot wait until then for the failing confidence in Jacob Zuma to be dealt with by Parliament. I have therefore also petitioned the Speaker to do everything necessary to bring forward the opening of Parliament to at least the second week of January 2016. South African cannot wait for answers while Parliament remains closed for extended holidays.

The ANC has itself expressed a lack of confidence in Jacob Zuma, and internal ANC and Tripartite Alliance pressure last night pushed Zuma to expose himself for his reckless and illogical steps over the past five days, by backtracking and flip-flopping in bringing back Minister Gordhan as Finance Minister.

Our economy has expressed enormous ill-confidence in President Zuma as it was sent into a tailspin, losing over two hundred billion rand in value in the past days, and forcing up South Africa’s sovereign debt costs that will ultimately steal funding from the poor. This economic crisis will leave millions more further away from job opportunities, and will compromise South Africa’s capacity to pay social grants and other social support.

The people of South Africa have lost confidence in Jacob Zuma and hundreds of thousands have expressed their intention for Zuma to fall. Now Zuma can fall, in January 2016, when Parliament can take up the cause of enraged South Africans and can vote President Zuma out of office. 

We will also move for the Motion of No Confidence to be voted on only by members of Parliament who are not directly affected by the Motion, excluding the votes of Cabinet Ministers themselves who the Motion has direct effect over, which we are seeking legal advice on. Section 96(2)(b) of the Constitution spells out that conflicts of interest shall not be allowed in votes of such great importance, and each Cabinet Minister must be excluded from the vote for this reason.

Ultimately, South Africans demand that Jacob Zuma be taken to task for his reckless handling of an economic crisis, and his sending South Africa to the fiscal brink – a Motion of No Confidence is the best mechanism to ensure that President Zuma is brought to account.

It’s time that we put South Africa first. It’s time for change. South Africa has reached the ceiling of the cost Jacob Zuma can inflict upon our nation.

Statement issued by DA Leader Mmusi Maimane, 14 December 2015