The ANC has a position on the removal of suspended public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane and any of its MPs who vote against it will be undermining the party, deputy president Paul Mashatile told journalists on Thursday evening.
Individual MPs will be called to openly express their vote in a roll call on the removal of Mkhwebane in a session of the National Assembly in the Cape Town city hall on Monday.
ANC MPs who were members of the section 194 committee that investigated Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office voted in favour of its recommendation for her to be removed on the grounds of incompetence and misconduct. The DA and ACDP also voted in favour of the recommendation, which will provide enough votes to meet the two-thirds majority required to remove the head of a chapter 9 institution.
The African Transformation Movement (ATM) and the UDM wrote separate letters to National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula requesting a secret ballot, saying that an open vote would compromise the integrity of the process. ATM leader Vuyo Zungula said a secret ballot would protect ANC MPs from threats and intimidation.
Mapisa-Nqakula refused the requests, saying the law empowers her to determine the voting procedure when no specific method is prescribed by the constitution or the rules.
A statement by parliament on Wednesday night said the speaker had considered the argument that party discipline might influence members’ votes, but noted that this was an inherent aspect of party politics and the current electoral system. This did not preclude MPs voting with their conscience. The voting procedure had been decided on by the chief whips forum representing all political parties.
A similar dispute arose when the National Assembly had to vote on whether to accept the independent panel report on the theft of dollars from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s game farm, Phala Phala. In this case too a roll-call vote was used.
In an engagement with the parliamentary Press Gallery Association, Mashatile was questioned on his view on a secret ballot and whether ANC members should be allowed to vote with their conscience.
Mashatile said the ANC had a position on Mkhwebane. “This is how we work in parliament. The ANC is led by a chief whip (Pemmy Majodina) and there is a caucus. We look at issues and decide how we are going to proceed. The caucus has not called for a secret ballot. The issue around Mkhwebane for the ANC is a straight issue. We don’t spend sleepless nights on it.
“The ANC discusses matters and mandates its representatives to deal with them. We rely on party policy because we are deployed.”
MPs were not independent but belonged to a party and could not do as they please, Mashatile said. The party has positions.
“If you don’t follow the party position the party is going to collapse. We don’t debate to the extent that we undermine the party.”
Mashatile, whose lavish lifestyle has come into the media’s focus, said he welcomed the lifestyle audits that are in the offing for members of the executive. He had also made the required declarations of his assets.
The National Assembly vote on the nomination of Kholeka Gcaleka as the next public protector that was supposed to take place on Monday has been postponed by the programme committee to a later date given the time it will take to debate and vote on Mkhwebane’s fate.
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