South Africa’s ruling party – the African National Congress – will discipline MPs who have publicly admitted that they voted in support of the motion of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma.
Zuma has called for all those who backed an attempt to oust him to face disciplinary action. ANC veterans have also added their voice, demanding that those MPs be expelled.
The backlash was not unexpected. A few hours before the no confidence vote in parliament – the ANC caucus met to remind ANC MPs who’s mandate they are meant to carry in Parliament. That of the ruling party.
They were therefore expected to vote along party lines. But for the first time since winning power, an estimated 26-30 ANC members of parliament supported a motion brought forward by the opposition.
The Veterans’ Association says those members are simply ill-disciplined and must be punished.
“It is ill-discipline. It’s in the constitution of the African National Congress that anyone who collaborates with parties that are not aligned to the ANC or anyone who who works with the forces that are anti ANC will be defined as counter revolutionaries so those people who did that are counter revolutionaries,” Kebby Maphatsoe, the Chairperson of the Military Veterans’ Association, told CGTN Africa.
“There has to be investigation because we cannot allow anarchy to happen like that.”
At the weekend President Zuma called for members who voted for him to go. He said their actions amounted to bringing the party into disrepute.
Zuma narrowly survived the motion with 177 members of parliament voting for him to go and 198 against the motion. Nine abstained.
Some senior ANC leaders have even called for lie-detector tests to be administered to trace those party members who did not toe the party line during the no-confidence vote.
But for now – the ANC has committed to dealing with the three MPs who publicly said they would vote with their conscience.
“In the ANC you don’t just remove people because of just removing them. We still need reasons to those people who’re saying the president must be removed. We want to understand what is the reason because there are no reasons out forward.
“The president has done nothing wrong. He is the president who is in fact the person who’d trying by all means to unite the the ANC. We still need him; he must finish his term,” Maphatsoe added.
Former finance minister Pravin Gordhan is one of those who are expected to be taken through a disciplinary hearing.
Here is Yolisa Njamela with that story:
