ActionSA wants secret ballot for Phala Phala vote in Parliament

5th December 2022 By: Sane Dhlamini - Creamer Media Senior Contributing Editor and Researcher

ActionSA wants secret ballot for Phala Phala vote in Parliament

Parliament Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba wants Parliament Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to undertake a secret ballot as the National Assembly considers the Section 89 panel report on Phala Phala.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is trying to garner support for a second term as African National Congress (ANC) president, as the party prepares for its fifty-fifth Electoral Conference.

The ANC’s National Working Committee has instructed its MPs to oppose the adoption of the report which found that Ramaphosa may have violated the Constitution.

Opposition parties, as well as those within the ANC implicated in the State Capture report, have called for Ramaphosa to step down.

Mashaba says the Speaker has a duty to South Africans to exercise independence and not allow the process to be politically captured by the ANC’s undue processes.

“This is not how accountability works and the Speaker is duty bound to give effect to Section 55 [2] of Constitution which demands that Parliament exercise oversight over the Executive and hold it accountable,” he said.

He said Ramaphosa must be subjected to due process so that South Africans can satisfy themselves that justice is being served in the Phala Phala matter.