After a complicated sequence of events that led to a request for a postponement, National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula found that the African Transformation Movement's (ATM) motion of no confidence in President Cyril Ramaphosa had lapsed.

The party would now have to bring a new one.

It all started with the party's Western Cape High Court application to have the motion, which was scheduled for Wednesday, voted on by secret ballot after Mapisa-Nqakula refused to allow that. The court struck the application from the urgent roll on Monday.

Following the court ruling, party leader Vuyolwethu Zungula refused to proceed with the motion and asked Mapisa-Nqakula to postpone it.

Zungula claimed the matter was sub judice and that the National Assembly's rules prohibit it from being discussed.

But Mapisa-Nqakula said according to the legal advice she received, the matter was not sub judice. She said that for the House to consider a motion, it should first be moved by the person who brought it.

Since Zungula didn't proceed with the motion, there was nothing for the House to debate.

After each party was heard on the matter – with the Economic Freedom Fighters supporting the ATM – Mapisa-Nqakula ruled that the National Assembly Programming Committee (NAPC) would take the matter further.

The NAPC met on Thursday morning.

African National Congress (ANC) MP and Deputy President David Mabuza's parliamentary counsellor, Hope Papo, said as far as he knows, there is no matter before a court and the motion should fall off the programme.

Deputy Speaker Lechesa Tsenoli seconded this suggestion.

ANC MP and House chairperson, or chair of chairs, Cedric Frolick, said the sub judice rule didn't apply because there was no judicial decision pending

"Parliament has the right to determine the order of its own business," he added.

He said the motion had no right to appear on the order paper after Zungula failed to move it.

But Zungula was adamant that the matter was before a court and that his motion should remain on the National Assembly's order paper.

"There is an ongoing court business," he said.

"It can't be that we are cornered to withdraw," he said.

He proposed that the motion remain on the order paper until the court ruled on the matter.

The EFF backed him up again.

"We must not put pressure on the ATM to withdraw the matter," said EFF MP Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi. "It is unfair – they are saying that this matter is still in court."

Freedom Front Plus chief whip Corné Mulder said the sub judice rule required a relook and said he believes it is unconstitutional.

"You cannot prevent Parliament from doing its work," he said.

With consensus elusive, Mapisa-Nqakula said if an MP did not proceed with a motion at the scheduled time, it lapses.

"I don't think it is the responsibility of the speaker to postpone your motion," she said to Zungula, adding that it was on the agenda since 2020.

"When the ATM is ready, it can always resubmit their motion to the speaker," she added.

"At the moment, I've got nothing to postpone. Because you chose not to move your motion. The motion has lapsed."