DA will not take part in the vote of no confidence against President Cyril Ramaphosa

Nelly Ndlovu02/12/2020

The DA will not be taking part in Thursday’s motion of no confidence vote against President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The party’s chief whip Natasha Mazzone confirmed on Wednesday that none of the party’s members would be part of the Parliamentary proceedings.

The vote was sanctioned by Speaker Thandi Modise, following a request by the African Transformation Movement (ATM).

The party has since failed to get Modise to grant its wishes of having the vote held in a secret ballot.

The ATM believes Ramaphosa has failed in his duties as president. This is the president’s first vote of no confidence since he took office in 2019.

Mazzone said the DA does not believe the call for the vote is genuine. She said it is only likely to fail because ATM has only two MPs in Parliament and would need a large number of ANC MPs to support the motion.

“The motion will, therefore, not succeed and only offer an entertainment break from the work of Parliament.

“The DA’s decision to abstain from the vote does not mean that we will not hold the president accountable. By abstaining, we are placing President Ramaphosa on notice, because if he does not implement his economic reform strategy, as promised, we will certainly, in future, reconsider our decision to abstain from such a motion,” she said.

This motion should serve as a wakeup call for the president to show some backbone by tabling his Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan before Parliament for it to be passed and implemented without delay,” Mazzone said