Johannesburg - EFF leader Julius Malema has called on the DA and members of the ANC to vote with their conscience during the Section 89 inquiry debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa in Parliament. The debate supposed to happen on Tuesday but it members of Parliament moved the debate to December 13.
Malema was speaking at a press briefing held at the Winnie Mandela House in Johannesburg. His address comes a day before MPs are expected to vote on whether President Cyril Ramaphosa should face an impeachment inquiry.
This comes after the independent Section 89 panel, led by former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo found prima facie evidence that the president might have violated his oath of office in regard to the Phala Phala farm affair.
This week National Assembly (NA) Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula declined a request from the African Transformation Movement (ATM) for the ballot to be held in secret.
The EFF said that it was not worried about this as it would separate genuine leaders from dishonest ones.
"We are not worried about the ANC, but we are worried about the DA because the party is blowing hot and cold. The DA is highly conflicted because the poster boy of their handlers has been found wanting. Inclusive of DA, we are not worried at all, but we do not trust the DA to do the right thing tomorrow.
"People will see the DA for what it is; a party that defends a money launderer should they choose not to vote Ramaphosa out," Malema said.
When it comes to members of the ANC such as Lindiwe Sisulu and Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, who have previously called for President Cyril Ramaphosa to step down in public, Malema urged them to do the right thing, walk the walk and publicly vote for Ramaphosa’s impeachment.
Malema said that the rejection of a secret ballot does not worry him much.
"I am happy that this moment has come to show all of you that the rot is not in Zuma or Ramaphosa but in the entire ANC.
"We are happy that the vote will not be through a secret ballot but by the show of hands. Let the likes of Lindiwe Sisulu and Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, who have called for Ramaphosa to step down in public, show their hands tomorrow in Parliament. We want to see if they are for the rule of law and if they are for South Africans and the side of the Constitution and not on the side of individuals.
"Let them show us that because we want to see. We want to see if all the ANC crooks are genuine. They must vote him out while seated next to the man and their colleagues. They must vote according to their conscience and not according to the party mandate," he said.
Malema said even though there has not been a consensus among all the opposition parties in Parliament on the impeachment process against Ramaphosa, he was confident that Ramaphosa would be shown the door soon enough.
He said they have requested UDM leader Bantu Holomisa to speak to the DA to ensure that they garner the numbers to impeach the president.
DA chief whip Siviwe Gwarube said the party rejected Mapisa-Nqakula’s decision to reject a roll-call vote, which the party had called to be used during the vote in the House on Tuesday. The DA has accused the speaker of trying to protect the president.
"A roll call voting mechanism is used in parliaments across the world, and even in South Africa’s own provincial legislatures, where public representatives are called upon individually by the presiding officer to publicly verbalise and cast their vote in a parliamentary motion," Gwarube said.
The Star