IOL

ANC confident Zuma ousting motion will fail

WESTERN CAPE / 10 November 2016, 11:19amSiyabonga Mkhwanazi

Parliament - The DA’s attempt to remove President Jacob Zuma from office, through a motion of no confidence in Parliament on Thursday, faces another defeat from the ANC.

The ANC’s strong majority of 249 MPs looks to give the DA another defeat in the Chamber on Thursday.

President Jacob Zuma Picture: Sumaya Hisham. Credit: EPA

The ANC has insisted that none of its MPs will swing the vote in the National Assembly in favour of the opposition despite pleas from DA leader Mmusi Maimane that ANC MPs must vote with their conscience.

Parties were on Thursday attending their scheduled caucuses where final touches on the vote will be discussed.

The ANC has already spoken to its MPs and told them that they vote as a unit, and no vote will go to the opposition.

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said this week the country’s system was a party system and not a Presidential system.

Mantashe insisted that ANC MPs were in the National Assembly on the ticket of the ruling party, and no other party.

Independent analyst Sipho Seepe put it succinctly recently when he said that the ANC gets irritated when it is told what to do by “external forces”.

The ANC came out of its National Working Committee on Monday in support of Zuma, saying calls for him to go were premature.

The NWC resolved that it will meet with the stalwarts of the ANC including Reverend Frank Chikane, Murphy Morobe, Cheryl Carolous and others.

The veterans said last week they have been trying to meet with Zuma and the other top five leaders to discuss the state of the party.

But Mantashe said the NWC decided it will meet with the veterans.

The caucuses of opposition parties in Parliament, ahead of the vote on Zuma, may decide on a strategy how to get more votes on their side.

But the ANC has already described the motion as frivolous.

Opposition parties need more than half of the ANC MPs to get Zuma out of office, but that looked unlikely after the tough talk by the top brass of the ANC and the caucus.

The ANC MPs have always backed Zuma over the last few years when opposition parties tried to use the motion of no confidence to remove him.

Political Bureau