President Cyril Ramaphosa. Picture: Elmond Jiyane / GCIS
OPPOSITION parties in Parliament will not be supporting the motion of no confidence in President Cyril Ramaphosa this coming Thursday despite the problems they had with his leadership.
DA spokesperson Siviwe Gwarube said they did not support the motion even though they had problems with how he had handled South Africa’s economic issues.
“We do not believe that this is a genuine motion to hold the president to account,” she said.
Gwarube said the DA believed that this was more of a case of ANC factional battles than of the party holding Ramaphosa to account.
It has been reported that the African Transformation Movement filed a motion of no confidence against Ramaphosa in February this year. The motion was approved by National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise.
In its application, the ATM argued that Ramaphosa had misled the country when he said there would be no load shedding between December 17, 2019, and January 13 this year. They also argued that the president had failed to take action against Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and the Eskom board that had assured him (Ramaphosa) that there would be no load shedding during this period.
Although it has never been proven, the ATM has been closely linked to the ANC’s secretary-general, Ace Magashule.
Gwarube said the DA would not be part of the ANC’s factional battles and that Ramaphosa should be held accountable at the ballot box during elections.
IFP chief whip Narend Singh said it was a pity that the motion of no confidence that was made earlier this year was only being talked about now.
“We recognise that the president and Cabinet are not performing optimally now,” he said.
Singh said what Ramaphosa needed to do was to put the country first, rather than the party. He said they would be voting against the motion as they still had faith in him. Singh said what needed to be done was for Ramaphosa to deal with people in his Cabinet who were not performing.