ANC suffers a humiliating defeat as DORAB fails to pass again in Parliament

17 November 2016

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa suffered a humiliating defeat when the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill [B15-2016] was not passed for a second time in Parliament.

The Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, tabled the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill two weeks ago during the medium-term budget policy statement, providing for a R5.41 billion adjustment to national budgets in South Africa.

However, despite two votes, two “three-line-whips”, making attendance mandatory, and numerous text messages pleading with members to vote, the ANC could not muster enough votes to form quorum and pass the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill.

Not even Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s last-minute dash to vote was enough to prevent the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill from being defeated a second time in Parliament.

The poor Chief Whip of the Majority Party, Jackson Mthembu, was so desperate before the vote that he switched to “rapid fire”, sending out text messages, pleading with members to vote, such as the following:

What this proves is that the ANC are now so internally divided, so dysfunctional, so disinterested and so poorly disciplined that they are not even capable of getting the basics right, which is simply to show up and vote in Parliament.

We do not support the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill, which provides for an unfair share of revenue between the national, provincial and municipal spheres of government, and will therefore not vote to support it when it is placed on the order paper to be voted on for a third time, on Tuesday 22 November 2016, in Parliament.

Issued by David Maynier, DA Shadow Minister of Finance, 17 November 2016