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Polity
Published: 18 Mar 2010
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| ANC: Sisulu: Speech by the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, in the debate on the vote of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma, Parliament (18/03/2010) | |
| Date: 18/03/2010 Source: African National Congress Title: ANC: Sisulu: Speech by the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, in the debate on the vote of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma, Parliament Mr Speaker Ministers and Deputy Ministers Honourable Members Ladies and Gentlemen: The vote of no confidence in President Zuma as proposed by COPE is fatally flawed. The claim that the President has failed to live up to the expectations of a broad spectrum of our society is nothing more than a desperate grab at some publicity by a bunch of media hyped people. It provides no specificity on what this "expectation" is in relation to the Constitution. Neither does it provide any evidence of the support it claims. But such hallucinations and reckless ambitions are to be expected from the leadership of COPE. It is the same party, as members will remember, that claimed that it would win the Eastern Cape outright and co-govern in at least 4 provinces. Such delusions of grandeur are not uncommon. That is the stuff of which these people are made of. Mr Speaker, This is a frivolous motion that is an outright waste of our time. It begs the question: why are we even debating such silliness? How do we come to even have it on our order paper? But importantly: How do we as parliament deal with such frivolity in future? Section 102 of the Constitution, from which I assume this motion is based, provides for a motion of no confidence. This Constitutional provision indicates "if the National Assembly, by a vote supported by a majority of its members, passes a motion of no confidence in the President, the President and the other members of the Cabinet and any Deputy Ministers must resign." For this motion to pass it requires 50% plus one of the Members of this House. It should be obvious for anyone who is numerically literate that for this motion to pass in this House, it will require the endorsement of the ANC, the majority party with 65.9% of the vote. How did COPE think they could pass a motion with only 7.4%? For those who are numerically challenged, it is important to note that at this stage of the debate, COPE's motion only has the support of 25% of the total Members in the House, made up of COPE, the DA (16.6%), the ID (0.92%) and UDM (0.85%). Should parliament be entertaining a motion whose prospect of success is so hopeless? To protect themselves from such frivolity, a democracy require a threshold against which support can be measured. There ought to be a threshold not only of support, but also substance for a motion of this nature to even find its way on to a debate. It is this kind of stupidity we should not accept. We verified the Parliamentary rules and confirmed that "stupidity" is not un-parliamentary. Albert Einstein once said, "the definition of stupidity was doing the same thing over and over and hoping for different results". COPE only managed 7.4% of the vote and the result is not going to change. By entertaining frivolous motions of this nature, this house may be elevating ridiculous political immaturity to an undeserved status. We carry an absolute majority mandate in this House - a mandate bestowed on us by the electorate. The chances of a no confidence motion against a President being successful, unless emanating from the ANC itself are so remote as to be ridiculous and silly. I have had occasion to scrutinise the rules of Parliament and consulted on the matter. I have found no reference in our rules to how Parliament can deal with such a waste of time and resources. No rules could be found on a vote of no confidence. Mr Speaker, we in the ANC would want to call for a review of the rules of Parliament, a matter which is long overdue. Specifically in this matter, the onus should be on a party proposing such a motion to show that it has a reasonable opportunity to carry through the Constitutional This will also ensure that there is no abuse of the Constitution for silly purposes, especially by the same people who always grandstand on the basis that they are protectors of the Constitution. We must stop this abuse. Calling for a motion of no confidence of a president is a serious business. It is not something to be taken lightly or used as a mere political gimmick. The Constitution has a very serious provision intended to allow Parliament to use, should the President fail on those matters that he is constitutionally bound by. These are clearly spelt out in sections 83 and 84. The allegations raised are not even remotely connected to these constitutional stipulations and have nothing to do with the President's constitutional obligations. Even if we were to grant a most generous interpretation to the motion, the main matter predates his ascendancy to office. You can start counting backwards! COPE's latest publicity stunt comes as no surprise. It is common knowledge that COPE has its own leadership challenge. The current parliamentary leadership has been accused of ineptitude. It has to resort to theatrics to respond to accusations that it has been upstaged and outmaneuvered by the DA. It is still being upstaged be the DA even in this debate. They want to abuse parliament to address their leadership squabbles. Most embarrassing for them is that their former deputy leader has joined the ANC. She discovered what we have always known, that COPE is made up of motley of individuals that have lost out in a democratic contest. For them it has always been about leadership. Play the game, not the man. That is what has been so flawed with your politics, you have been playing the man and that has completely blinded your vision, you are obsessed with President Zuma. One would have thought that the leadership of the various parties who spoke here would have heeded the stately advice of the leader of Inkatha Freedom Party in his response to the President's State of the Nation address, whose words are worth repeating as they are steeped in wisdom and democratic tradition. "I respect the President, warts and all, because behind him, rightly or wrongly lies the will of the democratic mandate of 66% of the South African people. I could not hinder or oppose without opposing the South African people....I cannot afford to see the President and his government fail. If they fail, my own country fails. If the President and his government fail, I will not applaud and rejoice but weep. For if they fail, our liberation fails." In an act of clutching at the straws, and consumed by a vengeful spirit COPE leadership tries to exploit the president's willingness to accept where he might have erred. The President is not beyond criticism. He is the last to suggest that. Where he failed us, he is the first to acknowledge and apologised and we, who constitute almost 66% of this House, have forgiven him. Here is a bitter pill for COPE to swallow. Using last year's April general election as a starting point, the TNS Research survey showed Zuma's approval level rose from 40% at the beginning of 2009 to 52% at the time of the election and stepped up to 58% in November in the same year. And yes, this is despite their serious reservations concerning Zuma's practice of polygamy leading Neil Higgs (TNS) to argue that "it is clear that many ordinary citizens separate their approval of Mr Zuma as President from his private life." We are pleased with the latest report compiled by the Bureau for Economic Research and which was published last week. It found that the business confidence index (BCI) "had risen 15 points to 43 in the current quarter - the single biggest increase in 16 years. Also, at 43 points, the BCI was back to the level before the financial market crisis erupted about 18 months ago". Economic projections for the coming financial year are encouraging. But what galls us now, is the sheer hypocrisy of his detractors. For some he was the worst nightmare to become a president. COPE's anger is corrective in that it calls for better and enhanced support. It is motivated by the understanding that more could be done. As such, they do not identify or associate themselves with those who harbour a passionate and ideological dislike for Zuma. It is the same masses that supported him when all manner of abuse was thrown at him. At the time, the privileged amongst us were deafeningly silent when state organs were used to malign and violate his constitutional rights. They are aware that these same forces have emerged from the crevices where they have taken refuge. To COPE, you are a bunch of sore losers, sour at democracy. Turn your attention to yourselves. Check with your erstwhile friend, the Honourable De Lille how her media hyped support very quickly dwindled to 0.92%. It is in the nature of politics that the media can make you out to be more than you could ever be. Even as she is busy drumming up support for her coalition of the disgruntled, she will tell you how damaging it is to lose a Deputy President of an organisation. It happened to her. And now we have your treasured former Deputy President, Lynda Odendaal - she has seen the light. This is not only because she discovered what we have always known, that COPE is made up of permanently angry individuals who have lost out in a democratic contest - but more importantly because she knows it is only the ANC that will address our challenges as a nation. In COPE, old destructive forces have emerged from the crevices where they have taken refuge. We stand ready to defend hard-won freedoms from opportunism of short-term irrational impulses. The hypocrisy is so sickening. Which one of the Honourable Members sitting in your individual glass houses would throw a stone. Honourable Dandala, Shilowa, Botha, Ngonyama. Should I go on? Honourable Dandala, get out of COPE while you can. It is a destructive energy over positions, legitimized under your bishops cloth. Get out and go and serve the church. I thank you |
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