The Congress of the People (COPE) has asked to join the Constitutional Court case by the United Democratic Movement to have a motion of confidence in the president decided by secret ballot.

COPE president Mosioua Lekota said his party wanted to bring additional pieces of evidence before the court which it believed were relevant to the adjudication of the disputes at issue.

This was evidence of intimidation of national deputy general secretary of the South African Communist Party Solly Mapaila‚ and previous instances where the African National Congress had allowed a free vote according to each member’s conscience.

Lekota said it had come to his attention that Mapaila was not only booed but also had a firearm pointed at him on the occasion of the 24th anniversary of the death of former SACP general secretary Chris Hani in Boksburg on April 10.

“It is reasonable to assert that such unprecedented hostility to Mr Mapaila was solely triggered by the stance recently adopted by the SACP that President (Jacob) Zuma must step down from the office of the President of South Africa‚ which is central to the present application‚” Lekota said in his affidavit filed on Wednesday.

Lekota said members of the SACP who were also ANC members of Parliament‚ numbering about 20‚ might feel conflicted between that call by the SACP and whatever call from ANC leadership.