ANC MPs told to toe line

A panicky ANC has read the riot act to its MPs in the National Assembly to toe the party line in the upcoming vote of no-confidence debate against President Jacob Zuma or face the consequences.

The Daily Dispatch has learnt that the governing party in the Eastern Cape has contacted its deployees in parliament warning them against siding with the opposition.

ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane confirmed they had issued reminders to Eastern Cape-based MPs to vote “correctly” on the date – still to be determined pending a decision of the Constitutional Court.

“What we are saying is that all ANC deployees will have to vote in support of the President when they have to vote on the matter in parliament, no matter how hard people feel about the President.

“We will never understand any ANC deployee who chooses to vote in support of the opposition,” Mabuyane said.

“We are experiencing problems within the ANC and all of us are equally not happy about what is going on in the ANC but ANC matters must be attended to within the ANC structures.”.

The ANC’s crackdown on its MPs comes after the UDM, on April 10, filed papers with the Constitutional Court asking it to rule that the upcoming vote of no-confidence against Zuma be conducted by way of a secret ballot.

The court then asked the affected parties, wishing to oppose the application, to do so by April 13 while directing the UDM to file responding papers by April 19.

Other parties who filed papers in support of the UDM motion are the EFF, IFP and COPE while Zuma and National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete opposed it.

The Eastern Cape is the second province to openly warn MPs against siding with the opposition.

Mpumalanga premier and ANC provincial chairman David Mabuza issued a similar warning two weeks ago.

UDM leader Bantu Holomisa yesterday said the matter was now in the hands of the court to decide when it will be heard.

“The directive as to what is next will come from the ConCourt on whether ours is a case to be listened to or not so the onus is on them now because all the parties have filed,” said Holomisa.

In previous no-confidence motions, the ANC has never acted in this manner – suggesting that the party feared that Zuma’s end may be nigh.

The matter is taken so seriously by provinces such as the Eastern Cape that some ANC branch officials have also contacted individual MPs from their constituencies to back Zuma at all costs.

The Sunday Times recently reported that opposition parties were openly recruiting ANC MPs to support the motion of no-confidence, but three MPs including Eastern Cape’s Lulu Johnson said even though they felt that Zuma should have resigned a long time ago, they would not vote with the opposition.

A senior ANC regional leader confirmed to the Dispatch this week that they have taken the responsibility to remind their deployees in parliament to vote correctly.

There are 20 ANC MPs from the province who were fielded from the province-to-national list, while another 15 more are deployed via the national list.

Mabuyane said all members of the ANC caucus will get a briefing from secretary-general Gwede Mantashe ahead of the vote.

“The SG will go and address the ANC caucus on how to handle the matter as guided by the national officials, as he does regularly,” he added.