EFF's motion to remove Mapisa-Nqakula fails

The EFF’s motion of no confidence in National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula was defeated on Wednesday.

A majority of the assembly’s members (234) voted against the motion with only 42 supporting it and 73 abstentions.

EFF leader Julius Malema called for Mapisa-Nqakula’s removal for allowing armed members of the security services to enter a joint sitting of parliament on February 9 when President Cyril Ramaphosa was delivering his state of the nation address (Sona).

Armed police rushed to the stage at the Cape Town City Hall, where some formed a wall around Ramaphosa while others pushed charging EFF MPs from the stage as they were approaching a seated Ramaphosa.

On Wednesday, Malema accused Mapisa-Nqakula of being an “unrepentant delinquent” who abuses her power and violates the rules of the National Assembly and the constitution.

“She allowed the police to invade parliament and made it worse by calling on the security forces of South Africa to enter the chamber to intimidate peaceful members of parliament,” he said. 

Malema claimed that in June last year when in EFF MPs demanded answers from Ramaphosa about cash stolen from his farm, Mapisa-Nqakula degenerated and instructed the parliament protection officers to assault EFF MPs, including women.

“Women MPs were also sexually assaulted because when they were being violently removed, beaten and pushed, their privates’ parts were touched by men. 

“We told the Speaker in the same sitting that this is happening, but she ignored us because her sole mandate is to protect Ramaphosa.

“Whenever Mr. Ramaphosa is being held accountable she chooses violence. She chooses to abuse her powers, violate the constitution and the rules of the National Assembly,” said Malema.

“She is happy when we leave these chambers in the hands of men who are unashamed to violate women Members of Parliament, touch our private parts and harass us such that we end up in hospital seeking medical treatment.”

EFF MPs rising on points of order held up that budget debate by over an hour before Mapisa-Nqakula instructed parliament bouncers to eject them and muted their microphones.

Two months later parliament announced that an independent investigation found no evidence of gender-based violence or sexual assault of female EFF MPs during their ejection.

Motivating for the speaker’s removal, Malema accused Mapisa-Nqakula of protecting Ramaphosa including her decision to reject the ATM and other parties’ request for a secret ballot on the vote to establish the Section 89 committee into the Phala Phala saga despite MPs being threatened with removal by the ANC should they decide to vote with their conscience.

He accused her of being “a tool” and a puppet of the president saying “like her handler, she must be removed, and she must be removed now,”

Only one political party, the ATM, agreed with the EFF.

The ANC’s deputy chief whip Doris Dlakude described EFF MPs’ storming of the stage on Sona night as treasonous.

She said the party’s mission was to weaken parliament democracy and its processes by defying its rules and undermining its presiding officers.

“It is important to emphasise that parliamentary democracy is often weakened, when we allow this house to engage in the narrow and populist agendas of those who are simply here engage in political theatrics and grand standing, in order to make a name for themselves.

“We must be clear that we have anarchists and agents of destruction in our midst, who have manipulated their way into this sacred space of consensus-building debate, to actively thwart freedom of speech and violate the liberties given to each member of this house,” said Dlakude.

Dlakude described the EFF as “enemies of the constitution, who do not respect the rules that govern parliament and have continued to violate and defy them for self-interest and populism.

“Ironically, today we are here to debate a motion brought before this house, by the very same group of anarchists, who have no interest in the transformative agenda of this sacred chamber.

“We witnessed, as did the rest of South Africa, brazen attempts to disrupt the proceedings of February 9, including threatening the safety of the state president. This is not only treasonous in nature, it was an act of antagonism, which cannot simply be shrugged off as another one of their theatrics.”

While the DA agreed with the EFF that Mapisa-Nqakula was not suitable to head the legislature, it did not support the EFF motion saying it was deficient and procedurally flawed.

According to DA chief whip Siviwe Gwarube, the EFF motion did not even scratch the surface on why Mapisa-Nqakula was ill-suited for the role, adding that she will be remembered as the speaker that hastened the decline of the institution. 

“The constitutional giants that came before you like Dr Ginwala and Max Sisulu built a foundation that is being deliberately obliterated by the ANC.

“The true test of an effective head of the national legislature is whether the individual can impartially and with integrity carry out our constitutional obligations as parliament. It would be dishonest for anyone to argue that this House is ran impartially and with integrity. It is not,” said Gwarube.

Such a critical role could not be occupied by an individual who has on numerous occasions undermined the constitution, disregarded the role of parliament as an oversight body and routinely forgets about the principle of separation of powers, she said.

“This is why in August 2021 when President Ramaphosa brazenly instructed the ANC members of this House to elect Speaker Mapisa- Nqakula, the DA objected to her election. 

“We objected because the president shuffled his deck of cards to remove a deeply compromised minister in his cabinet, only to shackle us – the national legislature – with an individual who could never rise to the occasion.”

Mapisa-Nqakula had treated parliament with disdain for the 19 years she was a cabinet minister and would not “miraculously transform into a defender of legislative oversight”.

“And when the true test of impartiality came, the speaker failed,” said Gwarube.

The DA abstained from the vote.