Parliament is expected to experience a historic day on Wednesday when opposition parties attempt to have both President Cyril Ramaphosa and his cabinet removed.

In a first of its kind, two different motions of no confidence brought by two opposition parties will be debated by the National Assembly.

The DA tabled a motion of no confidence in the entire cabinet, except for Ramaphosa, while the ATM tabled its own motion of no confidence in Ramaphosa.

This will be the first time in democratic SA that the National Assembly holds two separate debates on the president and his cabinet.

It will also be the first motion of no confidence in Ramaphosa since he took over as president in 2018.  

National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has agreed to a call by DA leader John Steenhuisen to roll call the voting procedure in Wednesday’s motion of no confidence in the entire cabinet.

Last month Steenhuisen tabled a motion of no confidence against the cabinet.

As part of the proceedings, Steenhuisen and his party wanted ministers to be excluded from voting in the process because of a conflict of interest.

The DA further wanted MPs to individually vote for or against the motion instead of voting as a block via their chief whips.

“According to part G of the rules on virtual sittings, members are entitled to cast their votes either electronically, by voice or by having their vote recorded by their respective whips,” Mapisa-Nqakula said in a letter sent to Steenhuisen.

“Accordingly, I wish to confirm a manual roll call voting procedure will be used for voting on the motion. This will entail that after the question is put, the secretary will call each member of the house, and each member when called will voice ‘yes’ or ‘no’  to the question.

“The details will be explained to the party whips and to the house before voting takes place.”

The DA planned to hold a picket outside parliament in support of their motion.

Last week the party called Ramaphosa’s executive the “poverty cabinet”, directly attributing the country’s woes to ministers.

The party ran a campaign asking members of the public to sign a petition calling for the cabinet to go.

On the same day, the National Assembly will also debate a motion of no confidence in Ramaphosa which was brought by the ATM last year.

The party has been at loggerheads with Mapisa-Nqakula over the voting procedure for the motion.

It wants a secret ballot to be used in the voting for the motion of no confidence and dragged Mapisa-Nqakula to the high court in Cape Town in a bid to force her to allow the secret ballot.

This came after her repeated refusal to accede to the party’s demands. 

Initially the party asked for the debate to be postponed owing to the court battle between it and Mapisa-Nqakula, but on Tuesday night parliamentary spokesperson Moloto Mothapo confirmed the ATM motion was going ahead.

“The speaker has since received a belated response from the ATM declining to withdraw its motion instead of postponing it. The motion will therefore remain on tomorrow’s agenda of the house as scheduled by the National Assembly’s programme committee,” he said.

TimesLIVE