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The African National Congress welcomes the National Assembly's rejection of the DA's misguided and publicity-driven 'impeachment motion' last night. There is no doubt in our minds and the minds of South Africans that the motion was groundless, a blatant abuse of serious constitutional provisions and a mockery of our democratic Parliament. Constitutional provisions such as Section 89, which deals with the removal of the President on sound legal and constitutional grounds, are taken seriously elsewhere in the world and are not abused for silly political games as the DA frequently does. Those who value our constitution, which is renowned as one of the best in the world, ought to frown at this perpetual flagrant cheapening of the democratic rights brought about through blood and sweat.

Not unexpectedly, the DA's motion was a clearest confirmation yet that the party is a proxy of Western imperialist agenda with no interest or consciousness for African unity, cohesion and political stability. That the DA leader Mmusi Maimane introduced his motion in the House by extensively quoting from a foreign press in the form of US's Washington Post, was a chilling reminder regarding whose agenda the DA is parroting through this motion. The motion and its associated proposals read like imperialist' pamphlet designed to undermine the African continent and the great efforts by our government to resolve the Sudanese crises to bring about stability to that sister nation. It is clear that there are inherent contradictions regarding the provisions of the Rome Statute in relation to our obligations to the AU and our role in Sudan.

These are the contradictions that our government, through the ensuring Court case and other avenues, is putting great efforts to resolve. We would never expect an unashamedly Eurocentric DA to comprehend such complex African diplomatic and governance matters. Instead, the DA would rather, through its motion, inflame the perilous situation in Sudan, place hundreds of our soldiers currently in peacekeeping mission in Sudan in danger and render the Sudan situation unmanageable. The question is: whose interest are they serving, who is pulling their strings?

Government's appeal of the Court decision regarding President of Sudan's visit ought to be supported by those who value African unity, peaceful resolution to the Sudanese crisis and those who prescribe to the principle of Africans' solution to African problems.

Issued by ANC